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ELEMENTS 



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ETHICAL SCIENCE 

A MANUAL FOR TEACHING SECULAR MORALITY 



FOR THE USE OF 

READING CIRCLES, TEACHERS' INSTITUTES, 
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES 

■A 

/CP ' BY 

^ JOHN OGDEN, M. A 



AUTHOR OF 

THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION," "THE ART OF TEACHING, 
"OUTLINES OF PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCE," ETC. 



BISMARCK, N. D.: 

JOHN OGDEN 

1891 



f,V FE3 20 1892 






COPYRIGHTED BY 
JOHN OGDEN. 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



The following pages have been prepared rather hur- 
riedly and without an attempt at completeness, believing 
that books for study should be rather suggestive than 
exhaustive. 

The main endeavor of the author has been so to arrange 
the topics and sub-topics of the book that the student or 
reader may have the subjects of the book exposed to his 
view as they exist in the nature of things, rather than that 
the opinions of the author should constitute the text. 

In this way the student's own conclusions may be drawn, 
and, from the topics arranged and partially developed, he 
may construct a system of morality in harmony with his 
own belief; for it must be conceded, that while we have 
a body of incontestable truth, constituting the basis of all 
morality, still the opinions of men upon minor points are 
so diverse as to make a uniform belief in dogmatical prin- 
ciples impossible. 

The author maintains that moral truths and moral 
conduct may be reached from different routes or sources ; 
all converging, it is true, to the same point : and that it 
savors somewhat of illiberality to insist upon a uniform 
belief in the means or doctrines whereby we are to arrive 
at a perfect knowledge of the truth, in a human sense. 

Reason demands, and the age in which we live demands, 
that all opinions, all doctrines, all dogmatic philosophy 
be subjected to the most rigid scrutiny, especially when 



4 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

these opinions, etc., affect men's lives and conduct- There- 
fore he claims from an indulgent and scrutinizing public 
only what he grants, viz. , freedom to think, and freedom to 
express the truth as he understands it. 

He has also studiously avoided the use of text-books and 
treatises on morals, moral philosophy, and doctrinal ethics, 
and whatsoever would in the least prejudice the expression 
of independent thought. The propositions, definitions, 
opinions and arguments may, therefore, appear a little 
crude; but he covets the truth and honest criticism, 
rather than great renown. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Author's Preface, . . . . . . . .3 

Introduction, .......... 7 

Chapter I. 

Principles Laid down, ..... .13 

What, Therefore, Is Moral Law ? . ... 17 

Chapter II. 
The Genesis and Purposes of Science, . . . . .23 

Chapter III. 
Applications and Uses of Knowledge, ..... 30 

Chapter IV. 

The True Order of Scientific Development, A Means of Promoting 

Moral Culture, ...... 35 

Chapter V. 
Study as a Purely Moral Force, ...... 42 

Chapter VI. 

Ethical Attributes, ......... 48 

The Social Sentiments and Qualities, ..... 59 

Ethical Attributes in Human Nature, . . . . .63 

Chapter VII. 

Obedience and the "Will.— Their Proper Incentives Considered, . 64 

II. The Will, . 71 

Chapter VIII. 
Incentives to Voluntary Obedience and Duty, .... 79 

Chapter IX. 

Incentives to Involuntary Obedience, . . . . .91 

Incentives to Obedience, ....... 103 

5 



6 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Chapter X. 

The Value of Science, Art, Literature and Learning, as Instruments of 
Refinement and Moral Power, . .... 104 

Chapter XI. 

The Value of Methods of Teaching as Instruments for Refining and 
Elevating Man, ........ Ill 

Chapter XII. 
The Moral Force of Industrial Education, . . . . .130 

Chapter XIII. 
Human Obligations and Duties, ...... 137 

Chapter XIV. 
Social and Commercial Relations and Duties, . . . .156 

Chapter XV. 

Political Relations, Obligations and Duties, .... 184 

Suggestions in Conclusion, . 201 

Synopsis of Human Relations, Obligations and Duties, . . 204 



INTRODUCTION. 



In order to determine the true province of moral 
culture, or the best methods for teaching morals in the 
public schools and other institutions of learning, it is 
necessary to state clearly the ground to be occupied, and 
the principles and methods to be pursued. This neces- 
sity will be conceded by all 

But thoroughly to instruct children and youth in the 
purest principles of morality, without inculcating religious 
doctrines and beliefs, requires not only a careful statement 
of principles and methods, but a still more guarded dis- 
tinction between those principles and practices designed 
both for instruction and inculcation and the regulation 
of human conduct, or morality, and those on the other 
hand, that relate to what is generally regarded religious 
doctrine. 

Indeed, religion, in its most comprehensive sense, and 
as understood by most people, or as a system of broad, cul- 
ture affecting human conduct, may be said to include all 
that is claimed for morality, since it presumes to cultivate 
all those sentiments of honor, purity and truthfulness that 
enter so largely into a system of pure morality. And 
while this may not be true of all religions, it is safe to 
claim thus much at least, for the best systems of religion 
that have been established in the earth. Hence, the ques- 
tion to be decided here is " Can pure morality be taught 
without inculcating religious doctrines, as these are usually 
interpreted and understood? 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

If religion is defined loyalty to the truth and the right, 
the cultivation of the best faculties of man, spiritual, 
ethical and physical, and the exponent of all that is true 
and lofty in human character and life — which is certainly 
a liberal and comprehensive view of it — we answer no. 
But if it is defined to be a system of worship founded upon 
a popular belief in doctrines more or less miraculous in 
their origin and infallible in their merits, we answer, yes, 
since, however plausible this claim may be, absolute truth 
is unaffected by man's belief or unbelief. 

Principles may be regarded as eternal in their origin 
and efficacy, and unalterable in their nature ; i. e. right 
is right as a principle from the beginning and under all 
circumstances ; and wrong is wrong. Truth is truth and 
falsehood is falsehood ; and all these exist in the very 
nature of things, and independent of all religions, at 
least as last defined. Indeed, no religion and no religious 
belief can alter them without altering the nature and 
order of things. And these principles existed doubtless 
anterior to all known systems of religion and all beliefs 
and all mere doctrines. And they may be said to be inde- 
pendent of them ; yet they do not, in the least, interfere 
with or prevent the teaching of the purest and best relig- 
ion, as mere doctrine and belief of men, or modes of 
worship ; but, on the contrary, true morality properly 
taught is the best possible preparation for the best system 
of religion. The two can not be antagonistic, neither can 
the one take the place of or supplant the other. 

These universal principles of morals lie within the 
scope and comprehension of man's understanding, and 
therefore they may be taught and enforced, as a system 
of ethics, in connection with and as a part of the ordinary 
duties of family and school life. And this places morality 
both as a system of rules for the regulation of human con- 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

duct, and also as a body of doctrine, clearly within the 
range of possibility. 

This being the case, a fair statement of these principles, 
and of the means of delivering them and enforcing them 
so as suitably to affect human conduct, becomes the 
immediate object of inquiry. 

Among the means to be employed, the methods of 
instruction hold an important place. For instance, 
they should be adapted to the capacity of the young, at 
the various stages of growth ; and still as a system of 
ethics, not widely different from those employed in the 
ordinary school work. 

Again, books of instruction and competent teachers 
will certainly be required ; but greater stress should be 
placed upon the actual practice of those things that are 
expected to appear in the lives and characters of those 
thus instructed. Books should therefore be used as 
mere guides, both for the instructor and the instructed, 
but not as the final authority. 

As to the general character of such books, and all books, 
we may be permitted to say that books of instruction, 
whether in physics or metaphysics, mathematics or morals, 
should ahcays be scientific — scientific, not only in the 
matter of principles and facts, but scientific in the arrange- 
ment of these: i. e. 3 they should embody principles founded 
on truth, logically developed, and properly adjusted to the 
capacity and the natural order of development of mind and 
body, as well as scientific in the subject matter treated. 

This is especially true of books for children and youth ; 
so that they themselves become both truthful and truth- 
loving as well as scientific, while in the pursuit of science 
or truth; since truth-telling always begins with thinking 
the truth, studying the truth in a truthful way, and 
imbuing one's mind with the principles and practice of 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

truth. Like produces like here, as in all other depart- 
ments of growth. 

Again, many people suppose (they can hardly be said 
to believe, since they seldom take the trouble to think), 
that books and lessons for children, and especially for young 
children, need not be scientific, should rather be made very 
easy and simple, should be so diluted that the effort to 
master them shall be reduced to the minimum. This is 
a great mistake. There is, perhaps, no greater in this con- 
nection. Children do not naturally fancy the most diluted 
nourishment. And if there is any one age of the child in 
which his knowledge should be scientific, and scientifically 
arranged, it is when he first approaches his study or work. 

Children should also early learn to think, not so much the 
thoughts of others as their own thoughts, struck into exist- 
ence, it may be, by the perusal of the thoughts of others. 
They should be taught to think vigorously and methodic- 
ally. It is their natural and inalienable right; for the 
moment a healthy thought dawns in the mind of a child 
it affords him a species of joy, sometimes even delight; and 
these constitute the natural stimuli to moral sentiments 
and moral growth. 

It is of consequence, therefore, what children think; as 
much so, certainly, as what they eat, or what they do, as 
determining their moral character. The characteristics of 
the mind are built up from the materials that enter into 
its activities, as essentially and as truly as the body is; or 
as the strength and beauty of the house are dependent upon 
the character of the materials that enter into its walls and 
towers, its floors and doors, and all its ornamentation . 

Children, therefore, should early learn to think, and to 
think the truth, — and the sooner the better — since if once 
the habit is established of coming directly to the truth, to 
the fountain and source of all scientific knowledge, and of 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

investigating the truth in its better forms, its purity, its 
simplicity the sooner the life will conform to the same laws 
of truth and order. This, therefore, is a moral force. 

There is nothing dangerous or audacious about this, but 
exactly the reverse. Children often hunger and thirst and 
sometimes starve for those forms of scientific truth, which 
we ignorantly suppose to be beyond their capacity or power 
to understand. The natural condition of children, both 
as to ordinary environment and their natural inclinations, 
is altogether favorable for a vigorous and somewhat 
exhaustive investigation of some of the most important 
problems of life, as witness their many questions on these 
subjects. It is true, books for the instruction of the 
young should be simple and elementary, but not silly and 
sedimentary, as is apt to be the case. But science is sim- 
ple. It is simplicity itself when rightly adjusted to 
mental capacity ; sometimes it is even sublime in its sim- 
plicity. It is nescience that usually constitutes the com- 
plexity of a subject of thought or investigation. The 
supposed complexity and abstruseness of scientific sub- 
jects often arise from the unscientific arrangement, and 
the wrong adjustment of principles and elements. This 
begets the confusion and perplexity among the young, 
which often accompany the pursuit of science. 

Scientific subjects, rightly unfolded to the youthful 
mind, become not only inviting and invigorating, but 
reveal such a wealth of beauty that they become even cap- 
tivating. And then these elements have that in them that 
addresses itself to the feeblest intellect, awakening the 
interest and attention, invigorating and directing the pow- 
ers of investigation, strengthening and improving the 
understanding and judgment, and bringing all the latent 
powers of the will to bear upon some of the best problems 
of life. And because these subjects are thus elementary 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

and simple, they are none the less scientific and practical ; 
but, on the contrary, the more nearly they are reduced to 
their elementary forms, the more scientific they become, 
and the more nearly they are adjusted to the individual 
wants of childhood, the more practical they become, since 
they thereby fulfil the scientific conditions of learning. 
And the moral effects hence arising are two-fold. 

But in all cases of instruction, whether scientific or 
moral (and the distinctions generically are scarcely dis- 
cernible), it is necessary that we recognize the following 
facts and conditions. 

1. A capacity in man for such culture and growth: 
i. e., a basis upon which to erect a superstructure, 
either of scientific knowledge, or of moral character. 

2. A pre-existent plan or pattern by which to be 
guided in the work, both as to ivhat we teach, and how 
we teach; and 

3. A standard or criterion by which to judge or meas- 
ure moral actions, and to determine the just proportions 
of this superstructure, when once erected and completed. 
All this will require care, and a rigid classification of 
principles, and a close application of them in a course of 
instruction and practice, which we now proceed to give. 



CHAPTER I. 

Principles Laid Down. 

The following propositions may therefore prove helpful, 
both in planning and prosecuting this work. 

Proposition I. — Man has inherently a moral nature, 
an innate moral sense or capacity. This is necessary to 
moral culture, since, without the nature or capacity, its 
cultivation were impossible. 

Remark 1. This proposition might seem almost like an 
assumption; but it is warranted both by the best literary 
authority and by the common consent of the race. 

Remark 2. This moral nature or capacity is what we 
call Moral Sense* It is the basis of conscience. It exists 
in man inherently, and, when enlightened, cultivated and 
improved, it becomes the active conscience itself. 

Remark 3. Conscience,\ therefore, is moral sense plus 
intelligence. It may be true or false, dependent upon 
judgment and belief, i. e., the character of the intelli- 
gence or information may determine the character of the 
conscience. At the same time, this moral sense naturally 
inclines to right, as the eye inclines to light and as the ear 
to sounds; and it as naturally rebels against the wrong as 
founded in the nature of things, until warped and perverted 
by wrong treatment. 

Proposition II. — The moral sense is an intuitive sense 
which develops into moral sentiments and moral obliga- 
tions, under right treatment. 

1. It is to the moral man what perception, intuition and 
consciousness are to the other intellectual faculties, or to 



* See Dr. Carpenter's Mental Physiology, pp. 212, 243, 245, and context. 
+ See Webster's unabridged— second definition. 

13 



14 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

the intellectual man. It furnishes the basis or the elements 
for the moral sentiments* and conscience, much in the 
same manner in which the cognitive faculties furnish the 
data or elements for thought and reasoning. 

2. It is not a sixth sense, but it is to the moral senti- 
ments what touch is to the other senses, a base upon which 
they all are built or founded; a soil into which they are 
planted and from which they grow; or it is the medium 
through which all the moral sentiments act and reveal 
their several qualities. 

3. All the moral sentiments, therefore, are but the con- 
crete modifications of the moral sense, or the applications 
of it, in a developed form, to the ordinary duties of life, as 
a sense of justice, of right and wrong, of obligation, duty, 
gratitude, love, etc., just as seeing, hearing, tasting and 
smelling are but modified forms of feeling or touch, the 
basis of all the senses. And, as judicious exercise improves 
and enlarges all these senses, so the exercise of the moral 
sentiments and qualities improves the moral sense, where- 
by this moral sense develops into conscience. 

4. The moral sense, therefore, when thus developed, 
becomes the criterion by which to judge of right and 
wrong, when the understanding is duly exercised and when 
the judgment approves. Without such a sense, no just 
judgment could be formed or decisions rendered in matters 
where absolute right and absolute wrong are at issue, since 
there would be no tribunal whereby impartial justice could 
be determined and rendered. 

5. Conscience, therefore, is largely a matter of educa- 
tion. It is founded upon the basis, moral sense, or that 
necessary sense of right and wrong, felt in the moral 
nature and revealed in the judgment after the understand- 
ing has moved upon it as an informer. 

* See Ethical Attributes, Chapter VI, p. 48. 



PRINCIPLES LAID DOWN. 15 

6. This moral sense exists in every one, but varies in 
degrees of energy and perfectness according to the consti- 
tution and circumstances of the individual. 

7. It may also be perverted by wrong treatment and 
false notions engendered through ignorance, fear or super- 
stition. Therefore, the character of its promptings 
depends largely upon the character and extent of the 
information furnished through the intellect. 

8. If this information is truthful, pure and rightly pre- 
sented, and accepted, the conscience becomes a safe guide 
in matters of conduct; if perverted, impure and wrongly 
presented and received or applied, it is not a safe guide. 

9. The perceptions must be clear and well defined, the 
judgment sound and the reasoning correct, so that the 
decisions of the will may be justly influenced by the 
promptings arising from this intuitive moral sense. 

(a.) Morals have reference to the manners and customs of a peo- 
ple. In a more restricted sense they refer to those acts in the lives 
and conduct of men that either conform to or antagonize the recog- 
nized standard of right and wrong. 

(b.) In order to instruct the young in a system of pure morality 
it is necessary to determine as nearly as possible this uniform 
standard, and that this be, so far as absolute right and wrong are 
concerned, without exception. 

(c.) There can be no middle ground between these two extremes; 
neither can there be any change of one to the other, nor compromise 
with mere policy, the enemy of truth. It is necessary, therefore, to 
inquire what constitutes a moral act. 

Proposition III. — A moral act is a worthy act, 
prompted by a moral motive, and executed voluntarily; 
or ? more fully, a moral act is one prompted, from within, 
by an impulse arising from the moral sense, and, from 
without, by some corresponding worthy object or incentive, 
whose appeals are commended by the judgment and 
sanctioned by conscience, duly informed. 



16 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

All may be formulated into moral obligation. This 
latter makes the act voluntary on the part of the doer, 
and justifies it in the eyes of the law of obedience, which 
will be considered further on. It also fortifies the act 
against any selfish or unworthy motive, and lifts it into 
the plane of pure morality. 

Corollary 1. The quality of human actions, is deter- 
mined by the motives prompting them, since no other 
primitive elements can enter, either to vitiate or exalt 
them, except those ruled by motive. 

Corollary 2. Human actions, therefore, lose their moral 
qualities in proportion as they are performed merely to 
conform them to a recognized human standard; since an 
act, to be pure and good, must be free from any purely 
selfish or unworthy motive. Therefore 

Corollary 3. The higher and purer the motive, the more 
exalted the act, since its moral qualities are determined and 
measured by the motive, plus the incentives [see definition 
of conscience, page 13 ] ; or the more benevolent the motive 
the better the quality of the act; and vice versa [see 
moral sentiments, chapter VI, and moral incentives, chap- 
ter VIII J. 

Corollary 4- There must, therefore, be a standard by 
which to judge and determine the merits or demerits of 
human conduct, since without such standard there can be 
neither certainty nor satisfaction. What shall that stand- 
ard be ? 

Proposition IV. — A standard for human conduct, to be 
effective and reliable, must be good, or wisely chosen, and 
both uniform and universal, i. e., it must be derived from 
a confessedly pure source, unvarying in its applications, 
and recognized and accepted by all. 

Corollary 1. That standard must conform, in its 
essential features, to the natural promptings of the moral 



PRINCIPLES LAID DOWN. 17 

sense, since said moral sense, when duly enlightened and 
informed, embodies the force and promptings of conscience. 

Corollary 2. This moral sense must be re-enforced by 
clear perceptions of the truth presented, sound judgment 
in determining its merits, and correct reasoning in forming 
conclusions, and in its applications to human conduct. 

Corollary 3. This standard must have sufficient virtue 
and dignity to command respect and obedience to its 
requirements; otherwise it is of no binding force. This 
gives it the character of law. Further propositions may 
aid us here. 

Proposition V. — When man's ideas of right and wrong 
are duly formulated, recognized and accepted, they con- 
stitute what we denominate moral law. * 

Corollary 1. This moral law now becomes a standard 
by which to determine the quality of human actions, and 
a moral obligation demanding obedience to its mandates. 
The truth of this proposition needs no further confirma- 
tion. 

What, Therefore, is Moral Law? 

Proposition VI.— (Defining Moral Law.) — Moral law 
is a rule of conduct; or a human code embodying the 
principles and precepts governing human conduct, sanc- 
tioning and permitting what may be done and condemning 
and forbidding what may not be done. This law, of 
course, may be either obeyed or broken. Its appeals are 
to the will . 

Corollary 1. Moral law is, therefore, both rational and 
empirical, subjective and objective. Subjectively consid- 
ered, it is that which claims an intuitive recognition of 

* Law, however, is not a force, not even an active agent. It is only a rule 
marking- the limits of force, or a channel through which active agencies 
may operate. 



18 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

moral obligation in man, arising as from an impulse in 
his nature, to respect and love that which is true, right, 
good and noble, and to despise and shun that which is 
false, wrong, evil and mean. It is, therefore, rational 
intuition applied to problems and principles of right and 
wrong, which right and wrong must first be distinguished 
by the understanding and judgment. Hence the neces- 
sity for instruction and culture. It is a revelation, and, 
as it were, the incarnation of the moral sense, as we find 
it implanted in human nature, however perverted that 
nature may be. It is closely allied to personality and the. 
possession of property, since it naturally resists encroach- 
ments and resents indignities offered to the first, and 
clings to the possession of that which it recognizes as its 
own. It is the intuitional principle applied to man's 
individuality, and is therefore rational. It is the "ego" 
and the "non ego" in another form, the "meum and the 
tuum" of human nature, and should be respected accord- 
ingly. Under proper treatment or education, it coincides 
with conscience, the sovereign monitor of all our acts. 

Objectively considered, moral law is the recognized 
standard of conduct among men, derived both from the 
experience and the precepts of mankind in all their most 
enlightened stages. It is, therefore, empirical also, and 
adapts itself to human needs. 

Both the foregoing features of this law, viz., the sub- 
jective and objective, or the rational and empirical, must 
repose upon the moral sense; and they are interpreted in 
the just acts of human life. 

This law must also have character, or binding force, in 
order that it may be obeyed and that it may become infran- 
gible, i. e. y may not be disobeyed without incurring pen- 
alties. It must have dignity, probity and potentiality. 



PRINCIPLES LAID DOWN. 19 

Whence, then, does it derive its sanctions and binding 
force ? 

Proposition VII. — A law, to have binding force, must 
be hedged about by the strongest and highest incentives to 
obedience. These incentives arise chiefly from three dis- 
tinct sources, all having their origin in man's original 
nature, or at least as far back as we are permitted to 
trace it. 

1. From a simple desire to do right out of respect for 
right, or for the general good. This is the highest incen- 
tive inhering in man for man's sake. 

2. From the hope of reward of some kind, inhering in 
the act either for the act's sake, or for the sake of that 
which awakened and called forth the desire. This ranks 
second in the scale of excellence. 

3. From a corresponding fear of punishment, or loss of 
some kind connected with the non-performance of duty; 
and this ranks last in the scale of potential excellence. 

But all of these may be blended in the one great incen- 
tive to volitional acts, viz.: the voluntary acceptance of 
the conditions imposed by obligation to do or not to do, 
as directed or impelled by conscience. These sub incen- 
tives, rewards and punishments, may be so evenly balanced 
and so blended in their influence, that the evils that might 
arise from the excess of either would scarcely be percepti- 
ble or possible. 

The first of these incentives, a love of right, has two 
principal sources, whence it derives its sanctions and bind- 
ing force. 

1. Subjectively, from the moral sense, or that innate 
sense of right and wrong that resides in every human soul, 
which, when duly informed and educated, becomes con- 
science . 

2. Objectively, from an innate respect for authority, 



20 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

which we find co-extensive with the feelings of obligation. 
This arises both from the moral sense as a basis, and from 
a regard to the consentaneous wisdom and experience orf 
mankind in all the ages of the world ; also from the 
acknowledged good results that arise from conforming 
human conduct to these laws. 

3. These two moral forces combined, viz., the moral 
sense, duly enlightened and led, and the wisdom and 
experience of mankind, go to make up what we term a 
moral obligation of binding force ; and the course of con- 
duct derived therefrom and formulated into a rule or code 
for the guidance of subsequent acts becomes what we 
recognize as Moral Law .of Binding Force, a recognized 
standard of right and wrong, founded upon purely moral 
principles. But when these are weakened, obstructed or 
hindered in any way, they may be reinforced or strengthened 
by the hope of reward or the fear of punishment. [See 
incentives to obedience, Chapter VIII, p. 79.] 

It now remains to show how man's moral conduct and 
nature may be affected by the recognition of the claims of 
this law; for there is such a thing as an intellectual recog- 
nition of the claims of this law, and an acknowledgment 
of the binding force thereof, and still a personal neglect of 
these claims and a departure from their precepts and ordi- 
nances ; and this gives rise to, and an occasion for, the 
fear of punishment, since, when man errs knowingly, it is 
against his better judgment. How could it be otherwise? 

The following propositions may aid in determining 
these points, and the means of enforcing the claims of 
moral law. 

Proposition VIII. — Man's ideal standard of right and 
wrong should determine, in a high degree, the quality of 
his conduct between himself and his fellow-man. But 
does this recognized standard so affect him and his con- 



PRINCIPLES LAID DOWN. 21 

duct ? Let us examine the subsidiary propositions to 
determine how far man is governed by this recognized 
higher law of moral obligation. 

Corollary 1. — Objectively considered man's highest 
ideals of the true, the beautiful and the good are em- 
bodied and conserved in his conceptions of the perfect 
in form, in color, and in number or proportion; and sub- 
jectively considered, in thought, in will or purpose, and in 
power and loudness. 

Corollary 2. These conceptions exist in the concrete as 
well as in the abstract ; whereby they are maintained in a 
more substantial and practical form, or condition. Other- 
wise they mightfade into "unsubstantial being.'" 

Corollary 3. These ideals of perfection are what we 
call the absolute, the infinite in goodness, power, duration. 
And they may exist in man in a continually augmenting 
state, i. e., they may constantly approach the absolute or 
infinite without the possibility of ever reaching it. 

Corollary 4- The absolute — the unlimited — admits of 
neither increase nor diminution. Nothing can be added 
thereto, or subtracted therefrom. It admits of no possi- 
ble change. It is infinite in all possible perfections ; and 
the finite cannot reach the infinite, not even in conception, 
fully. And it is doubtful whether or not a true, high 
moral sense could even exist except in an undeveloped state, 
without some such approximate conceptions ; for without 
them the ideals or conceptions must forever be fluctuating, 
vague, uncertain and evanescent. 

Proposition IX. — The more perfect man's conceptions 
of the absolute in all perfections, the higher and more bind- 
ing the force of moral obligation. In other words, the 
higher man's standard of moral perfections, the purer and 
more exalted his conduct, other things being equal, since 



22 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

this gives more exalted views of life and expands, refines and 
sublimates his faculties. 

Corollary 1. Man's conduct, as before stated, is relative 
as to its quality and value. It is patterned more or less 
after his ideals of moral purity and perfections. After 
the infinite in all perfections, which is usually embodied 
in our ideas of God, the Creator, the Upholder of all 
things, the Giver of all good. Under proper degrees of 
pressure or stimulus the latent good in man, or capacity 
for good, is constantly coming to the surface, and when 
developed, adds so much more to the sum total of stored- 
up energy to affect future generations. 

Corollary 2. The absolute is actually unattainable, 
yet ever deepening, widening and improving in man's con- 
scious conceptions, while in a state of progress or growth; 
and this state of things may always continue under proper 
culture. 

Corollary 3. Hence the idea of rewards and punish- 
ments, present or prospective, personal or relative, are 
always present as mild incentives in the mind of the doer 
of good deeds. Even an obligation reluctantly discharged 
bears with itself the rewards of satisfaction and moral 
growth. But these ideas of rewards and punishments, by 
no means, vitiate the quality of the act influenced or educed 
by them. 

Corollary 4- These considerations make it possible 
for man to be continually improving in his moral nature 
through his conceptions of the true, the beautiful and the 
good, aided by education and the precepts and common 
experience of mankind, formulated into a code of morals. 

But, in addition to all this, the moral force, resident in 
science itself and every branch thereof, when properly 
brought to bear upon man's higher nature, which facts 
we are about to consider, together with whatever other 



THE GENESIS AND PURPOSES OF SCIENCE. 23 

helps are vouchsafed to man, are considerations of the 
first importance. All these things combined, with the 
much that is to follow by way of applications, and we 
shall have a system — a moral lever, so to speak — by which 
to lift man into a higher plane of thinking and living. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Genesis and Purposes of Science. 

Among the many questions to be considered in this 
connection, the following may be selected as typical, at 
least. About these, many others will arrange themselves 
for the consideration of the thoughtful student. 

1. What is the origin of all knowledge and all science? 

2. What are the general and the specific purposes of 
each department thereof ? And assuming that such pur- 
pose or purposes are benevolent, and promotive of mor- 
ality, which we shall consider further on, we may ask as a 
more practical question, 

3. What studies in the schools as now organized are 
most conducive to the cultivation of high moral princi- 
ples and purity of conduct? [See proposition XIII and 
remarks 6.] 

This last, of course, admits of conditional answers. 
Both the nature and the habits of the pupil, together 
with the peculiar circumstances by which lie may be sur- 
rounded, must be taken into the account ; for what would 
suit the tastes and natural inclinations, and the purposes 
of the one class, might be as distasteful and inappropriate 
to another; and the different times and tendencies of 
the age would also affect the general conclusion. The 
same with slight allowances is true of individuals. Ohil- 



24 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

dren differ widely in their environment, and in their pros- 
pective employments. Each one of these peculiarities, 
and perhaps many more, all demand a slightly different 
treatment . 

It will be proper at this point, in answer to the first 
question, and as a preliminary to answering the last, more 
fully to inquire into the origin or sources of all knowledge 
and science as means of man's intellectual and moral eleva- 
tion, in order also to determine the approximate educa- 
tional value of each department, as applied to the several 
grades of school life. 

The following propositions or statements may aid in 
arriving at just conclusions: 

Proposition X. — All kno vdedge and all science — 
which latter is only a logically classified condition of the 
former — bear evidences of having the same objective 
source. Evidently all spring from the same order of 
things, and have a unity of plan and a unity of purpose. 
To assume the contrary of this proposition involves a 
condition of things not only more difficult of explanation, 
but contradictory to known facts and plain reasoning. 

Remark 1. Science in its subjective characteristics and 
sources is the product of mind itself, of thought, and 
therefore has its origin in the human mind. 

Remark 2. Science in its objective characteristics and 
sources, has its origin in Ontology or Being, which fur- 
nishes the occasion for thought and inquiry, whereby 
knowledge is acquired and science wrought out and form- 
ulated into its present diversified conditions for the use of 
mankind. 

Remark 3. Its adaptations to the various purposes of 
life are the result of long experience and patient study. 

Proposition XI. — There are two great departments of 
Ontology or Being, that furnish the just occasions for all 



THE GENESIS AND PURPOSES OF SCIENCE. 25 

thought and study, and are, therefore, the joint origin of 
science, considered in an objective sense, viz , Physics and 
Metaphysics. 

Remark 1. Physics, as the name implies, must represent 
here, and as subsequently considered, all forms and rela- 
tions of matter in the universe endowed with latent force 
and resistence, or any of the qualities attributed to matter. 

Remark 2. Metaphysics, as the name also implies, 
must represent all forms and conditions of immaterial sub- 
stances in the universe as thought, emotion, will, etc., and is 
that which endows matter with force and resistence, and 
any and all other properties, so that we have material sub- 
stances *, and immaterial substances in nature, both fur- 
nishing the occasions and conditions of thought ; and 
these substances with their conditions and relations logic- 
ally classified and judiciously arranged, in these two great 
fields of exploration, constitute our two grand representa- 
tive sciences, viz . , Physics and Metaphysics. 

To the first belong all those sciences which have, in any 
manner, to deal with matter in the concrete, or in any of 
its forms, arranging it and its properties under generic 
and specific heads ; or that deal with, or are in any way 
dependent upon, what are known as physical laws, as nat- 
ural philosophy (called physics), chemistry, physiology, 
zoology, geology, botany, geography, and so much of 
astronomy as relates to matter and its movements in masses, 
in large spaces. Other cognate branches might be named. 

To the second or metaphysics, belong all those sciences 
that relate in any way to phenomena and causation, the 
laws of thought and reason, and all those hidden forces 
that are the prime movers in all phenomena of nature, as 
growth and decay, life and death, strength and weakness 
cause and effect, with all their multifarious applications. 

* Substance, that which has existence. 



26 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

This class may also include mental and moral philoso- 
phy, or psychology, and all those sciences bearing upon 
the laws of thought, emotion and volition; the moral obli- 
gations growing out of man's relations to his fellow, as 
sociology, political economy, law and jurisprudence. 

Proposition XII. — These two great families or sources 
of science, viz., Physics and Metaphysics, occupy the two 
opposite extremes or poles of nature; and between them 
lies a vast plane of thought, occupied by two other repre- 
sentative families or groups of subordinate sciences, viz., 
Mathematics, and Language or Literature. 

1. Mathematics is the great instrument for delving 
into physics or nature, and developing the laws of form, 
number, mechanics, and all computations of quantity and 
values. It also includes so much of astronomy as relates 
to the laws of gravitation and motion. 

2. Mathematics has also a metaphysical side, lying as 
it does between the two poles of nature — physics and 
metaphysics — by which this branch of science is related to 
pure reason on the one hand, as in the case of pure mathe- 
matics, logic and the principles of geometry; and on the 
other, to the laws of mechanics and physical astronomy, 
and all material computation. It is one of the links joining 
the two extremes or opposite poles of nature, entering into 
both physics and metaphysics, and interpreting the laws 
of both. 

3. Language, or Literature, as a comprehensive branch 
of learning, may be regarded both as a means of communi- 
cation and as a record of man's thoughts, acts and emo- 
tions; and therefore includes history, biography, law and 
medical jurisprudence; in fact, a record of all that has 
been thought, said or done, so far, at least, as these have 
been expressed. 



THE GENESIS AND PURPOSES OF SCIENCE. 27 

4. Like mathematics, it lias also its physical and meta- 
physical sides, facing each way, bordering in its names and 
qualities of matter upon the material world, on the one 
hand, and in its record of tnought and reasoning, and its 
power of expression, on the other, opening directly upon 
the immaterial world. It is, therefore, the other link bind- 
ing the two opposite extremes of nature, and meanwhile 
recording its phenomena. Thus the two worlds are linked 
and correlated and made meet for thought and expression. 

As to the characteristics of these groups, and the indi- 
vidual sciences from which we are to derive their values, 
intellectual, physical and moral, we may add, in a general 
way by 

Proposition XIIL — All sciences have about them, both 
in their individual and associated capacity, the elements 
of human growth, whereby they become either helpful or 
hurtful, determined by the manner in which they are 
developed and applied. This nourishment is not to be 
found elsewhere; and both the character and extent of 
growth are determined by proper use. 

Corollary 1. We infer, therefore, that man was made 
for scientific investigation and discovery, and that science 
thus discovered and developed becomes a powerful means 
of his intellectual and moral growth. In this pursuit of 
science he finds his greatest pleasure and broadest culture. 

Corollary 2. That the true mission of these sciences, 
individual and associated, is the harmonious development 
of man's best faculties, in all their lawful relations, and 
therefore his moral faculties, since these are inseparably 
associated with man's intellectual and physical nature s 
The truth of this corollary will appear further on. 

Corollary 3. That while these sciences are growing and 
maturing under the fostering hand of man, through 
experiment and study, his faculties are also undergoing a 



28 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

corresponding change, are developing and strengthening in 
a corresponding ratio, keeping pace in their strength and 
capacity with the general progress of human knowledge 
and events; and that thus the illimitable improvement of 
the human race is made not only possible, but morally cer- 
tain. [See Props. VII and VIII, and Cors.] 

In a more specific sense the characteristics of these 
groups may be stated as follows: [See Perceptive Knowl- 
edge, etc., pp. 28-29.] And whatever characteristics appear 
in the groups themselves may be relied upon for develop- 
ing corresponding traits in human character and life.. 
Thus the study of mathematics is noted for the develop- 
ment of exact reasoning; the study of language and liter- 
ature, for comprehensive views and ideas of human nature; 
and all this is quite reasonable, since the first of these 
sciences is an aggregation of abstract truths and their 
relations, appealing directly to the reasoning powers, 
though not in the broadest and most comprehensive way; 
while the second is exclusively a human production, involv- 
ing the very use of the human elements they so richly cul- 
tivate. Similar deductions may be made from the study 
of the other two groups, physics and metaphysics. 

The specific characteristics of these groups may be 
stated as follows: 

1 . Perceptive knoiuleclge, or that derived from the obser- 
vation of and experiment with matter, with or without a 
view of determining its properties and uses; or exclusively 
from common observation and use: also, that knowledge 
derived from the consideration of the relation of things, and 
from a comprehension of abstract truths, or apperception. 

This implies a two-fold character of perception, both the 
objective and the subjective, the external and the internal 
operation of it, the first sometimes called sense perception, 



THE GENESIS AND PURPOSES OF SCIENCE. 29 

the second rational perception, the latter corresponding 
with the apprehension, necessary to good understanding. 
This class of knowledge, especially the first, is that 
which is so well adapted to youthful minds. It is usually 
the first, or that which arises from impressions from 
without. It is also the nourishment upon which the 
youthful mind feeds, until sufficient strength is acquired 
by practice or use to enable it to grapple with the more 
abstract and difficult forms of knowledge. 

2. Intuitive knowledge, or that obtained through intu- 
ition, or that power the mind has to grasp all forms of 
necessary (not in the sense of needful) and axiomatic 
truths, to be conscious of personal identity, the succession 
of events, and the necessary conditions of cause and 
effect, etc. 

3. Rational knoivledge, or that derived from the pro- 
cesses of investigation and reasoning, which latter, when 
seduced to the syllogistic formula, employs the well- 
established axiomatic truths, from which to deduce other 
dependent truths. This is the highest form of knowledge 
and may be used even in analogical and inductive pro- 
cesses. 

Remark 1. Of course, all the powers of the mind are 
brought into active operation in the judicious pursuit of 
all these specific kinds of knowledge. But it must not be 
forgotten that those faculties of the mind most active in 
the pursuit of the particular knowledge alluded to are 
those that give character to it, and by which it acquires 
the greatest strength and discipline, giving character to 
the faculties themselves — thus, perceptive knowledge 
improves perception, because perception is principally 
used in its acquisition. And the same is true of intuition, 
imagination, judgment and reason, etc. 



30 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

4. To this list there might still be added the Descrip- 
tive, the Didactic, the Discursive, and even the Polemic and 
Dramatic, all partaking more or less of the properties of 
the foregoing. And it may be further stated, 

Remark 5. That there is resident in each one of these 
sciences above named, and in each department of knowl- 
edge, a force, or nourishment every way suited and evi- 
dently intended, through its proper acquisition, to develop 
all the powers of the human mind, even to their best 
estate. It matters not so much, therefore, what we study 
as how we study; and further, 

6. There is a moral force resident therein, essential and 
inseparable from the intellectual characteristics, which, 
when skillfully managed, is perhaps the strongest, safest 
and best means of inculcating moral sentiment. 

This is surely the intent of all knowledge, science, all 
study, all labor. The knowledge or acquisition that leaves 
its possessor in the same moral condition in which it found 
him, has surely and sadly failed in its mission. Indeed, this 
is impossible, viz., to leave him as it finds him. The only 
question is: Shall it improve him morally or degrade him? 
It may do either. It can not do both. 

Our next inquiry, therefore, should be: How can we 
secure it against loss on the one hand, and injury on the 
other? 



CHAPTER III. 

Applications and Uses of Knowledge. 

The foregoing facts lead us to consider, in the next 
place, the applications and uses of knowledge as designed 
to administer to human needs, and as a means of moral 
elevation. 



APPLICATIONS AND USES OF KNOWLEDGE. 31 

All the forms and classes of knowledge and science, 
alluded to in the preceding chapter, are supposed to have 
grown up under the fostering hand of man, in order to 
meet his growing necessities, as he advanced in the scale of 
civilization and intelligence — sometimes to administer to 
his pleasure, sometimes as a matter of gain, and sometimes 
through the exercise of those higher henevolences which 
have ever characterized his career under the higher forms 
of civilization and refinement. Hence the following 
classification may aid us in determining these uses: 

1. Hie Selfish and Domestic Uses, or those administering 
to man's personal wants, as in the cultivation of the earth, 
and gathering food supplies, the manufacture of clothing, 
the building of suitable habitations, and the various means 
employed for communication, and for protection against 
his enemies, both man and beast. These cover a vast 
field. 

This selfish use of knowledge must not be confounded 
with those baser uses, whereby man perverts the knowledge 
he acquires for purposes of merely selfish or sensual gratifi- 
cation, or for promoting unworthy objects of any kind. 
Selfishness here must be understood to refer to self-pro- 
tection, and that enlightened self-interest that makes the 
individual good the public good; that will not take 
advantage of the innocent and the unprotected. 

In the course of time, and when these cruder forms of 
knowledge had served their purposes in the human fam- 
ily, they were usually superseded by higher forms, and 
those that looked more to a community of interests. 
People felt more and more the necessity of associated 
effort, as their wants multiplied and their views enlarged . 
Hence other forms and uses grew up and were cultivated. 
These we may call 

2. The Semi-Selfish and Social Uses, or those forms of 



32 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

knowledge that have been brought to bear upon man's 
dependence and intercourse with his fellow-man, out of 
which grow up all social, commercial and political rela- 
tions, and the laws regulating them (see chapter XV). 
"It is perhaps needless to more than merely state that 
man is naturally a social, commercial and political being ; 
that is, his best estate is always reached in the exercise of 
those qualities and duties that ally him to his fellow-man ; 
that his moral nature is necessarily and unalterably asso- 
ciated with these, and finds its chief delight in the exer- 
cise of the social and commercial intercourse thus made 
possible and necessary. Therefore man finds his greatest 
pleasure and interest in the exercise of those sentiments 
and qualities that yield the greatest benefit, and whereby 
his moral nature is cultivated, strengthened and refined in 
the highest degree. Hence, the best, safest and most 
reliable methods for moral culture seem to be associated 
with his ordinary employment and education. And this 
is as it should be. No other means seem necessary where 
these have free and unobstructed play. 

There is still another well-defined use to which knowl- 
edge may be and really is applied, which lifts it into the 
highest plain of moral excellence, and hence makes it still 
more forceful, and a still more powerful instrument in 
man's moral elevation. I mean 

3. The Purely Benevolent and Philanthropic Uses, as 
in the intelligent provisions made for sanitary and charit- 
able institutions, schools, colleges, public libraries, etc., 
in fact, all public enterprises that look to the improvement 
of the people of all nations, countries and climes. 

The benevolent uses of knowledge are often associated 
with enterprises not strictly benevolent in their intent, but 
still highly beneficial ; and this would include all general 
improvement. Its political uses, however, are more 



APPLICATIONS AND USES OF KNOWLEDGE. 33 

intimately associated with man's social nature, since his 
political relations arise chiefly from his social nature and 
circumstances in life. [See Political Obligations and 
Duties, Chapter XV, p. 184.] 

Hence it will be seen that knowledge or science, which 
is the chief instrument of man's elevation and refinement, 
may not only be classified as to its origin, characteristics 
and uses, but may become a means through these uses for 
his intellectual and moral elevation. And it will be 
further seen, as we pass to the more immediate acquisi- 
tion of this knowledge, through well-appointed study and 
practice, that it imparts its own moral force to those in 
pursuit of it, at every stage of advancement, much in the 
ratio of honest endeavor, and a stern purpose to make its 
acquisition a measure of moral as well as intellectual 
growth. This last is too frequently overlooked. Every 
fresh acquisition of truth and every step in intellectual 
advancement requires a corresponding advancement in 
moral growth, otherwise it fails in its best purposes. This 
is education in its truest and highest sense. All else is 
more or less faulty. And because this feature of constant 
moral growth is not insisted upon, nor yet fully provided 
for, scientifically and patiently pursued, is the chief reason 
it is not secured to a greater extent. Both our plans for 
educating and our practices, therefore, may need, and 
probably do need, careful revision. 

Indeed, it is doubtful whether or not morals can be 
successfully taught in any other way than that alluded to 
in the foregoing, and which will be still more fully illus- 
trated as we proceed. It is doubtful, also, whether or not 
they can be so taught that the moral nature and habits 
shall be suitably affected by this teaching in the ratio of the 
knowledge acquired — taught, so that the conduct of the 
pupil shall in all respects conform to the teaching— by merely 



.•FEB 80 1892 



34 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE, 

teaching morals as a separate branch of study, or in a set 
course of moral lectures or lessons. At least, judging 
from the results of this perfunctory teaching of morals, 
by means of text-books in Moral Philosophy, or by any 
merely theoretical system of morals as such, it does not 
seem to affect the lives and habits of students in this 
ratio. 

Two principal causes may be assigned for this seeming 
failure: First, the period of life favorable to deep and last- 
ing impressions is usually past before such teaching or 
instruction (and there is a radical difference) is usually 
begun; second, it is usually taught more through precept 
than by example or practice. It is the latter that tells 
with most marked effect. Morals, like mathematics and 
language, must be practiced in order to make perfect. 
This is more than all precepts and all philosophies. 

One has aptly said, in speaking on this point: " Sow an 
act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap char- 
acter; sow character and you reap destiny." And so it 
would seem. The act, the habit, the character gather up 
all, or nearly all, the moral forces and project them forcibly 
into the future, there to work their destiny. 

Therefore we conclude: 

1. That morals, like any other practical subject, can be 
taught and enforced so as to affect character. 

2. That morals should be taught largely in connection 
with the ordinary branches of study, they affording just 
opportunity. 

3. That they should be taught by actual practice 
rather than by precept and philosophy alone. 

4. That morals should be taught in early childhood, 
and continued throughout the entire educational career. 

5. That to attempt to force down a dose of morals after 
teaching the sciences themselves, properly, is too much 



TRUE SCIENCE PROMOTES MORAL CULTURE. 35 

like taking a dose of physic after breakfast in order to 
promote digestion. 



CHAPTER IV. 



The True Order of Scientific Development a 
Means of Promoting Moral Culture. 

Our next inquiry, therefore, must be what order shall 
be observed in the schools, or in teaching these sciences, 
and adjusting their elements to corresponding grades of 
mind and body, in childhood and youth, in order that the 
greatest amount of effective moral influence shall be 
obtained from them? 

This is the great question in teaching. All others are 
dependent upon this one, to a great extent, since its proper 
solution involves a course of study that shall harmonize 
the many conflicting opinions that have been and are still 
entertained as to the Order of Studies ; and upon its proper 
solution also depends the success of the whole scheme as 
here planned. 

Let it be granted, therefore, and we think the matter 
will not be questioned. [See Chapter II.] 

1. That physics and metaphysics* are the two great 
sources of scientific research and knowledge; and that they 
occupy respectively the extremes, or opposite poles, in the 
realm of nature ; 

2. That mathematics and language (including litera- 
ture), as representative sciences, border upon each of these 
two extremes or sources, touching both and occupying the 
great plane of thought intervening; and as a necessary 
condition: 



* Used here in their comprehensive sense. 



36 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

3. That these four departments or representative 
sciences contain all the elements or materials, so to speak, 
upon which the mind of man was made to act, there being 
no other domain accessible to it, or to mortals; and, 

4. That these elements of nature, material and imma- 
terial (for they all belong to nature), may, through the 
action of mind upon them, in accordance with the evident 
intention and plan, be wrought out and formulated, accord- 
ing to certain fixed principles, into science; and, 

5. That these sciences, thus disposed, have depart- 
ments or grades in them exactly suited to corresponding 
departments or grades in mental and moral development; 
and, 

6. That these two entities, mind and science, mutually 
aid each other in their growth and development, when 
properly adjusted, and duly acted upon; it follows, there- 
fore, 

1. That mind and science should be so adjusted by the 
educator, that there shall be mutual attraction and mutual 
accommodation at every point, and at every stage of 
growth; 

2. That science, however elementary or however 
advanced, should be pursued by the learner in such a way 
that every step in advance shall be regarded in the light 
of a discovery by the ch ild or learner. 

3. That this spirit of discovery be so managed by the 
instructor, as to continually excite the. learner to addi- 
tional research wisely directed; and 

4. That his moral sentiments,* etc., that entwine them- 
selves about all human interests and every purpose in life 
be called into continual exercise, and made the principal 
promptors to duty and fidelity. 

* LSee Chapter V, Sentiments, Qualities and Habits.] 



TRUE SCIENCE PROMOTES MORAL CULTURE. 37 

5. That only such helps* should be rendered the pupil 
or learner as shall stimulate him to self-help, self-activity 
and original research and discovery. 

6. That all sciences have elementary principles, root- 
lets, so to speak, reaching down from their exalted heights, 
to the very substratum of human hearts and human 
understanding, and that their mission to exalt every 
faculty of mind and body is hereby revealed and verified; 

7. That these sciences, rightly interpreted and rightly 
taught, become helpful in the moral development exactly 
in the ratio of thoroughly well-understood principles and 
scientifically applied uses; 

8. That these sciences and their just application to 
human needs, so far from interfering with sound religiousf 
or soul culture, only promote it in its truest sense; 

9. That these elements of science and of all sciences, are 
represented and exemplified in the ordinary environment 
of the child, even in the nursery and the home. His first 
knowledge, therefore, begins with a conquest of this envi- 
ronment, which is the beginning and the prophecy of his 
future career; and with proper treatment continues much 
in this same order to the end. 

Self-activity, therefore, is a necessity to development; 
and it remains with the teacher, be it mother, kinder- 
gartener or school teacher, whether this native activity 
be utilized in the pursuit of useful knowledge and 
experience or wasted upon inanity and mischief. The 

*The author believes that "the easy methods ,1 devised by thoughtless 
teachers and authors, whereby children are relieved from hard thinking; 
and also the excessive explanations, and super teaching- whereby they are 
so rapidly advanced in learning, (?) to be one of the most fruitful sources 
of mental debauchery and laziness, and consequent immorality, now exist- 
ing. The unoccupied mind, or one overburdened with indigestible knowl- 
edge, is weakened thereby, and falls an easy prey to temptation and evil. 

+ Religion must be understood here in the light of the first definition. 
See Introduction, p. 7. 



38 ELEMENTS OE ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

character of the school and the teacher may hence be 
inferred. 

The child is a kind of perpetual motion — the only one, 
indeed, that has ever been discovered (not invented) — and a 
perpetual annoyance, or at least, source of annoyance to all 
who do not thoroughly understand him. The self-adjust- 
ment of environment seems to be the great secret. And 
this self-adjustment must be made possible by wise pre- 
vision. If this motion and self -activity can be directed 
to discovery and to the utilization of the elements of 
environment, which is really scientific discovery, not only 
the chances for annoyance are very much diminished, but 
the prospects for pleasure aud profitable employment and 
corresponding improvement will be greatly enhanced. 

The child, therefore, becomes both an explorer, which 
is a natural trait — as all may testify — and a real discoverer, 
unless, indeed, he is hindered in the one by overconfine- 
ment, and in the other by overteaching. The one is as 
bad as the other. What he needs most of all is to be wisely 
let alojie; alone that he may struggle and exert all his little 
strength — which is natural again — with his little problems 
wisely adjusted to his wants by his teacher, that he may 
conquer for himself. The moral courage and confidence 
both in his own powers and in his science or discovery are 
more valuable to him than all the moral precepts in the 
world . 

The child is confronted at every step, in his true treat- 
ment and advancement, by things new and strange, with 
employment and acquisition, with labor and capital, with 
government and institutions, all in embryo to be sure, but 
none the less real and important, and if " wisely let alone" 
(and this is a masterful wisdom) he will soon come to a 
proper understanding both of himself and his surround- 
ings. Things and their properties and their relations 



TRUE SCIENCE PROMOTES MORAL CULTURE. 39 

will soon become a school of inquiry and experiment to 
him, that will start more questions as to time, place, man- 
ner, distance, direction, resemblances and contrasts, mean- 
ing and use, cause and effect, than can ordinarily be 
answered in a lifetime. This taxes the best patience, the 
soundest learning, the profoundest wisdom of the race. 

Here we also have not only the elements of scientific 
knowledge presented to the child in such a way as to 
excite his curiosity, but so arranged as to contribute to 
his stock of useful knowledge of things and of his lan- 
guage, at a period when most needed. It constitutes the 
opening chapter to his subsequent researches and the nat- 
ural stimulant to thought. 

The natural inclination of the child is to see, to hear, 
to feel or examine, to experiment, accumulate and formu- 
late, all of which develop both thought and language 
when duly indulged. This is the favorable period in which 
to introduce the child to the study of the physics of things, 
as form, motion, color, number, language, etc.; and, 
as a healthy and strong bodily organization is acquired 
mainly by judicious diet and daily and hourly exercise, 
so the minds and morals of childhood and youth should 
be daily and hourly fed and exercised in those things and 
studies and employments most congenial to natural taste 
and most conducive to mental and moral growth and 
strength. 

A careful study of the child want will show that the 
physical sciences stand first in the order of learning, and 
that these, when properly formulated and adjusted to the 
child want, as revealed in his natural inclinations, and 
pursued in the light of " discovery," give ample exercise 
in language, form and number, and afford also ample 
opportunity for bodily activity and growth. And these 
are all represented and included in the ordinary environ^ 



40 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

ment of the child, and in which he finds his greatest 
delight. This is the natural order of science growth, moral 
growth and mind growth; since these sciences have about 
them those elements that are necessary both to the child's 
existence and his best culture ; and they are equally 
attractive in their nature. They bring into exercise all 
those useful powers, physical, intellectual and moral, that 
are so apt, if left unemployed, untrained, to waste in 
inanity or develop into mischief and vice. 

These physical sciences, when thus adjusted to human 
wants, become, as to their constituent elements, a kind of 
natural bridge to span the chasm that sometimes yawns 
between the known and the unrelated unknown. They 
lift the mind readily from the concrete to the abstract. 
And then they are a complete antidote for the evils of that 
period of idleness that is so apt to supervene the period of 
early thought and the ordinary school life. They consti- 
tute a ladder reaching from the lowlier things earthly to 
the region of the higher departments of learning upon 
which the thoughts, like angels, are continually ascending 
and descending in the realm of discovery. They consti- 
tute a convenient passage from the known to the unknown, 
from the tangible to the intangible, between observation 
and investigation, between physics and metaphysics, 
between perception and pure reasoning. Hence the order 
of study may be formulated, in a general way, in accord- 
ance with the following well-accepted principles : 

1 . From the known of environment in infancy, or material 
things and surroundings, through observation and experi- 
ment, to the unknown in thought and scientific formulae. 

2. From the simple and concrete in science, through 
study and investigation, to the more complex and abstract 
in form number and language or expression. 

3. From the physics, or natural sciences, through the 



PURE SCIENCE PROMOTES MORAL CULTURE. 41 

higher mathematics and literature, to the metaphysics and 
pure reasoning. 

This natural order in the study of the sciences, when 
duly enlarged and made specific in its application, is as 
essential to the orderly growth of mind and habits as is 
the observance of the requirements of the natural law in 
the cultivation and the growth of plants and animals. 
Indeed, the higher the organization in the subject of the 
growth, the more necessary and apparent the law. And 
if we ever expect a high state of moral development in the 
children and youth of the country, we must insist upon 
obedience to these same laws. 

A large part, and perhaps the largest part, of man's intel- 
lectual and moral blindness and depravity, and his evil 
tendencies in any direction, arises from the blunders 
made in the child's early education, leaving so much of 
man unprovided for in his actual growth. 

The kindergarten in its purity seems to have struck the 
keynote in the harmony of the child's thought and act; 
and the training here given is the opening chapter to the 
harmonious development of all his faculties, without which 
there can not be a healthy moral development. But there 
does not seem to be any valid reason why this same scien- 
tific and orderly method should not be generalized and 
extended throughout the entire educational career of man. 

The course of study should be planned to suit the child 
instead of bending and warping the child to suit the course. 
Moral degeneracies and social and political obliquities and 
deformities arise as frequently from the neglect or perver- 
sion of this natural order of studies as from any known 
inherent cause. 

But the whole force of this matter does not lie exclu- 
sively either in the particular branches of science, nor in 
the particular order in which they are taught and 



42 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

unfolded to the human mind. As important as these points 
are, the study itself, or the thinking forces called into 
action while studying and the consequent vigor and breadth 
of thought thus acquired, are what secure the chief excel- 
lence. The study itself is a most powerful agent. It is 
not only the introduction of the mind into all that is 
excellent and elevating in these branches themselves, for 
they may be regarded only as the alphabet or exponents 
of study, but it is the opening up to the human mind the 
grand possibilities that lie beyond the immediate region 
of human vision, the invisible and intangible. 

Thinking is the grand conservator of all human energies, 
and all human excellence, intellectual and moral. It is 
the object and aim of all study ; and it is that which 
refines and elevates man and distinguishes him from all 
other terrestrial beings. But the discussion of this phase 
of the subject will be reserved for the following 



CHAPTER V. 

Study as a Purely Moral Force. 

The objects and ends of study as a purely moral force 
may be stated briefly as follows: 

1. The discipline of the powers of the mind to habits 
of close attention, and to persistent orderly methods in 
thought and labor: 

2. The acquisition and extension of knowledge 
together with its orderly classification for the various life 
purposes, according to the established laws of thought: 

3. The utilitarian and professional objects, or those 
that relate more particularly to trades, employments, and 
professions. 



STUDY AS A PURELY MORAL FORCE. 43 

This last would afford a splendid field of inquiry; but 
we shall confine ourselves to the first of these objects, since 
in the discipline of the powers of the mind, and in the 
refinement and intensifying of all human forces, native 
and acquired, we shall find those strong moral influences 
that are mainly instrumental in man's elevation. 

Jf. Tlie mere acquisition of knowledge — which by the 
way, is best accomplished in connection with the severest 
discipline — is secondary as compared with this mental 
strength, vigor, precision and persistence in the pursuit of 
knoivledge which the best discipline secures, for, while it 
secures the best mental strength, it also enables its pos- 
sessor to discriminate among those finer elements of 
thought and science, those nicer distinctions in art that 
adorn the higher walks of learning and refinement; and 
also to judge more clearly in relation to all the duties of 
life. 

To think consecutively, vigorously, methodically, con- 
tinuously, and effectively, ranks, perhaps, among the highest 
graces of scholarship. It opens all the avenues of science 
and art, of literature and learning, of discovery and 
invention, and pours a continuous flood of light upon 
all the great problems of science and life, social, political 
and moral. It strengthens and sublimates every power 
of the human soul, and paves the pathway to universal 
progress. 

A clear distinction must be made, however, between 
hard study, or sober well-directed thinking, and the merely 
acquainting one's self with the thoughts of other thinkers. 
Second-hand thought is better than no thought at all; but 
its chief object is to induce original thought. It is 
borrowed capital and should yield a revenue. Its chief 
benefit arises from stimulating the mind of the reader or 
hearer to vigorous activity and broader and more indepen- 



44 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

dent, and original thinking. The first is merely borrowed 
capital; the second is individual stock in trade. The first is 
reflected light and heat; the second is native, original, 
vital, forceful; and the moral distinctions are equally 
apparent. Clear, effective thinking elevates the entire 
man, and gives stability to all his movements. 

5. In a purely moral sense, however, systematic study, 
or vigorous, effective thinking, touches man at every available 
point. It quickens the moral preceptions, enlarges the 
views of life, enlightens and develops conscience, strength- 
ens the will and refines and intensifies all the sensibilities; 
It opens up all the avenues to refined taste, good judg- 
ment, pure affection and aesthetic culture; and it is death 
to superstition and bigotry. 

The intellect thus becomes a wholesome guard or check 
upon supersensibility and a trusty informer of conscience. 
Without this wholesome check, the moral sense — the basis 
of conscience — is liable continually to a process of dwarf- 
ing, on the one hand, by negleet, or to be made morbidly 
sensitive, on the other, by a superstitious dread of impend- 
ing evil. Sound, healthy study or thinking, therefore, 
becomes a regulator and a safeguard to moral conduct. 

Independent thinking, wisely directed, will do more to 
break up habits of superstition, narrowness and unholy 
prejudices which have filled the world with sin and conse- 
quent suffering, and at the same time to establish a broad 
catholic spirit among the people, than all the creeds and 
catechisms invented by man. When people begin to think 
for themselves the true light soon begins to shine. They 
maybe a little awkward aboutitatfirst,but, since " we learn 
to think by thinking," man soon learns to think in the 
right channel, and this sounds the death-knell both to 
social disorder and political oppression. 

6. Study, ivisely directed, so occupies and absorbs men- 



STUDY AS A PURELY MORAL FORCE. 45 

tal energy as to leave no vacant or idle moments to he taken 
advantage of by evil influences. 

It thus subdues the passions, inordinate appetite and 
evil desires, that are often only inflamed by mere precept 
or preaching ; since even to point them out (not to say 
paint them) by ill-timed, though well intended rebuke is 
only to awaken their slumbering fires. But to so employ 
the mind in wholesome thinking, even upon the ordinary 
topics of science, art and literature, that all these latent 
energies are aroused and utilized in thought is to close all 
the avenues of vice, since- temptations to evil practices 
are greatly diminished and at the same time the moral 
powers are strengthened to resist the encroachments of 
vice. This usually gives complete victory, while the good 
affections and moral sentiments are all refined and im- 
proved ; and this ranks among the strongest moral forces. 
Let it be used! 

7. Patient and continuous study, tvisely directed, is a 
poiverful promoter of self-control. It gives one the mastery 
of his own powers by exercising them in accordance with 
their evident designs. Man was most evidently made for 
study and thinking; and a failure to employ his thinking 
powers in accordance with the laws of their growth and 
perpetuity defeats their very purpose and entails decrepi- 
tude and weakness upon them and upon all associated with 
them. The moral powers usually suffer most, under these 
circumstances. 

The ability to order one's own thoughts and emotions, 
sayings and doings, ranks among the highest excellencies 
of scholarship. It is the culmination of all excellencies 
in moral culture. It gives the main advantage in personal 
conflict, and, in every contest where virtue and vice are at 
issue: it enables one to escape danger, to rescue the perish- 
ing and to triumph in every conflict where the odds are 



46 Elements of ethical science. 

not too great; and, even then, he who governs himself not 
only uses all his strength to the best advantage, but he is 
really the victor, since he overcomes himself by patient 
endurance. This is the greatest possible moral triumph 
and can be practiced by any one who, by patient study 
and will, has learned the great lesson of self-control. 

8. Consistent study harmonizes man's faculties, soul and 
body, since it fulfills the laws of growth and maturity. 
There is strength in harmony; and the vigorous exercise 
given man's higher nature by thus grappling with the 
great problems of science and the sterner problems of life,, 
gives the ascendancy to his better nature. It gives the 
strongest and best moral fibre and prepares for right liv- 
ing. 

The inharmony or discord among the human faculties 
constitutes one of the prime sources of weakness and con- 
sequent immorality; since the friction, so to speak, is so 
great as to impair the faculties themselves, and thus to 
mar their work. 

If we wish to secure the best fruits from the growing 
vine, all the elements of growth must be fu'rnished, and 
all the lawful conditions of such growth must be complied 
with. If we wish to secure the best fabrics from the 
factory, the best articles from the mill or foundry, the best 
coloring and proportions and shadings in painting, we 
must furnish the materials in just measure, and fulfill all 
the conditions of harmony. 

So in moral culture. But some seem to think that 
that will come even against lawful provision; that it is 
brought about by some miraculous transformation, and 
that the laws of the universe are set aside in this trans- 
formation. But such cannot be the case, since these 
laws are all perfect from the beginning, every possible con- 
tingency having been provided from the beginning, which 



STUDY AS A PURELY MORAL FORCE. 47 

precludes the possibility of change. Reformations may take 
place suddenly or gradually; but whatever transformations 
are wrought in human character and life must conform 
strictly to these laws. There can be no healthy product, 
no permanent growth, without complying with these law- 
ful conditions. All the faculties of the child or youth 
must be exercised in obedience to law, or we destroy this 
beautiful balance, and derangement ensues. 

No healthy moral growth can be secured from one whose 
faculties are weak, deranged or out of repair. Therefore, 
since growth and harmony demand activity, the faculties 
of the mind and body must be duly exercised in order to 
secure them. Harmony is a necessary condition to healthy 
growth and permanent fruitage. Hence, to teach morals 
well means to teach everything else well. There can be 
no other way, since morals touch all and include all. 
If we strive alone for fruit, thereby forcing it, we shall 
neglect and spoil the vine. The vine is greater than the 
fruit; so the child is greater than his work. Make the 
tree good and the fruit will be good. Make the fountain 
pure and the waters will be pure. Make the boy good 
and healthy and strong by exercising him in all lawful 
ways, and you secure him against wrong and weakness 
and vice. But if we strive alone for morals we shall miss 
our mark, impair the faculties, and defeat the best aims 
of education, because we antagonize the laws of harmony. 

But before proceeding further in this subject it will be 
necessary to glance at some of the moral sentiments and 
qualities in human nature, the cultivation of which con- 
stitutes the leading characteristics in a work like this. 

These faculties or sentiments will be more conveniently 
treated in a separate chapter, where we shall attempt a 
close classification of them, both for study and practice in 
schools and families. Their application to life affairs will 



48 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

be shown as we proceed to notice tha "obligations and 
duties" arising out of human relations. [See chapters 
XIII, XIV, XV.] 



CHAPTER VI. 

Ethical Attributes. 

The Ethical Attributes include all those sentiments and 
qualities of human nature that in any way and manner 
enter into man's moral feelings, and that in any way con- 
tribute subjective incentives to conduct. For convenience 
of study and application they may be classified under the 
following general heads: 

I. Moral Sentiments. 

II. Moral Qualities and Habits. 

III. Social Qualities and Habits. 

They are intimately associated and blended in all that 
relates to man's moral nature and conduct, and so similar 
in character and purjjose that it is difficult to distinguish 
them, one from the other, in their ordinary applications to 
human conduct. 

First. The Moral Sentiments. 

The moral sentiments are those feelings and dispositions 
of the human mind that prompt to moral actions, or that 
serve as subjective incentives to these actions. They may 
be classified as follows: 

1. Those implying a species of equality and reciprocal 
feeling existing between the active agent and the recipient of 
the act, as, 

(a.) Respect for a worthy object, founded upon a recog- 
nition of commendable qualities ; for authority, for law, 
when these are recognized as right. Thus, I may respect 
my neighbor, teacher and associate, if I discover those 



ETHICAL ATTRIBUTES. 49 

worthy qualities in them that shall call forth this sentiment 
of respect. So I may respect the laws and institutions of 
my country or any country, if the first are founded in 
justice, and the second have merits that commend them 
to my judgment and taste. 

(b.) Esteem for the more excellent qualities in person, 
in character, in deeds, in value : thus, I may esteem 
highly or moderately the excellent qualities of either a 
a friend or an enemy ; I esteem such favors as he may 
bestow ; I esteem the friendship of the wise and good ; 
but I respect or love the persons themselves, i. e., I hold in 
nigh favor and regard all those qualities, sentiments and 
their products that commend themselves to my judgment 
and taste ; but I respect and love the agencies that 
possess these qualities, and that produce these results. 

(c.) Love, or the supreme regard and desire for those per- 
sons and qualities that please us most, or that have the 
strongest claims for such regard and desire, is the 
supreme affection of the human heart. Thus, we may 
love our parents, children, husbands, wives, friends and 
benefactors, and even an enemy may be loved with com- 
passion and pity. We may also love our country, the 
cause of the oppressed, learning, literature and progress, 
but not in the sense in which we regard and desire per- 
sons of our own species. We may love the beautiful, the 
true, the good, wisdom, virtue, justice, mercy, honesty 
and the like ; but we usually admire the beautiful in form, 
color, proportion, as flowers, birds, pictures, statuary and 
scenery. But we can not love deformity, vice or crime, 
injustice, impurity, wrong, however much we may be 
addicted to them. These things do not and can not call 
forth that supreme regard which is the necessary element 
in love ; and this shows the inherent nature of these moral 
sentiments and the moral sense. Neither can we really love 



50 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

articles of food, clothing, machinery, brute animals and the 
like, though these may all possess really worthy qualities 
in a high degree . We may relish, fancy, admire and really 
desire many of these objects ; but Love is too exalted a 
feeling to be called forth and applied to any thing gross or 
sensual. 

Love is the crowning grace of human character and life 
It exalts every virtue, sweetens every trial, assuages every 
sorrow, brightens every joy, binds tighter every bond of 
true friendship, conquers even a enemy, and lights the 
pathway of the world's true progress; and with all the 
evil that may surround it, true love can never be tainted. 
It is one of those qualities or sentiments of the human 
heart, so to speak, that escaped the contaminations of the 
fall, or ruin that comes from disobedience of law. If it 
exists at all, it exists in its purity, though it may be ever 
so feeble. 

2. Those moral sentiments and qualities implying some 
real or supposed superiority on the part of the recipient of 
the sentiment or act; and, on the part of the agent or actor, a 
feeling akin to awe, combined with respect and love: as, 

(a). Veneration forage, when it is associated with excel- 
lent wisdom or virtue: Thus, we may venerate the hoary 
hairs of the aged, if they are not dishonored by vice or 
crime. We also venerate the objects of antiquity, if asso- 
ciated with eminent historic events. 

Children and youth, therefore, should be taught to 
reverence and venerate their parents and the aged . It is 
a virtue likely to become extinct unless measures are 
soon taken to revive and perpetuate this ancient virtue. 

(b.) Reverence for superior qualities and beings, or 
qualities combined with a species of severe goodness, or 
that which inspires awe and manly fear or great respect 
and esteem, as distinguished from a slavish fear on the 



ETHICAL ATTRIBUTES. 51 

OQe hand, or cowardice and a too great familiarity, on the 
other. Thus, we reverence the great and good beings that 
may have a fatherly care and protection over us, as a 
parent or ruler, or a supreme being, or the source of all 
good. 

(c.) Adoration for a supreme power and goodness, 
intelligence and wisdom. Thus, we adore that which is 
most exalted in character, virtue, power, goodness; that 
upon which we are most dependent for the higher enjoy- 
ments, and for which we are willing to make the greatest 
sacrifices; that which we love, not as an equal, bat as a 
superior, and from which we derive the greatest enjoy- 
ment — the supreme in justice, mercy, purity, power and 
goodness, God himself. Like love, nothing short of the in- 
finite in all perfections will call forth this sentimet in all 
its strength and purity. It may, however, exist in various 
degrees of perfection . 

3. Those moral sentiments of a more general character, 
relating to home, country, people and race. 

(a.) Patriotism, or love of country, government and 
institutions, or loyalty from choice. Thus, we are attached 
to our native land, or the land of our choice, her laws 
and institutions, if they are founded in truth and justice ; 
we may even love liberty because it is the birthright of all 
intelligent creatures, and the highest expression of man- 
hood. And we are disposed to defend the rights and 
privileges of the government, because they are supposed 
to embody the principles of liberty and the highest good 
of the governed. 

(b.) Philanthropy, or the love of mankind in general. It 
is patriotism generalized and broadened, a general expan 
sion of human sympathies, covering the entire human 
species. Thus, we love the race of man, because he is the 
highest expression of earthly intelligence, wisdom and 



52 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

virtue. We love man because he is a part of the great 
body of which we ourselves are some of the constituent 
elements. This leads us to espouse the cause of the 
oppressed in all lands, the cause of the people against their 
oppressors; and we rejoice in the freedom of our own land, 
because it is a part of the great family whose sympathies 
are the common heritage of all. 

(c.) Benevolence, or general well-wishing or good-will to 
all beings, brute or human. It is based upon generosity 
and kindness. It is one of the crowning graces or virtues 
among its group of moral sentiments, as love and adoration 
are among their respective groups. It is the origin of true 
beneficence and all charitable movements for benefiting 
the race. Thus, we bear general good-will to all the fam- 
ilies of the earth and to all things associated therewith, 
unless, indeed, we are actuated by the opposite of this sen- 
timent, general malevolence; and this should be avoided. 

These sentiments all exist inherently in the child, in 
some form and in various degrees of prominence and activ- 
ity ; and it is the especial province and duty of education 
and instruction in their truest and broadest sense to 
appeal to them as occasion offers, and to exercise them in 
the ordinary school work. Indeed, true education or 
growth can not go on in the child nature without appealing 
to these sentiments at every stage of such growth. These 
moral sentiments lie in wait at every point, and it is 
impossible to avoid them without doing violence to the child 
nature and to every principle of true philosphy. They 
embody themselves in every virtue, mingle with every duty 
and every trial, entwine themselves about every joy and 
every sorrow ; they are a part of every lesson in every 
branch of learning; and to avoid them is simply to shirk 
duty and to stultify common sense. 

No especial lessons or exercises are to be devised for the 



ETHICAL ATTRIBUTES. 53 

proper appeals to these sentiments, or those that are to 
follow, since the best teaching of other things calls for 
just the right measure of these sentiments, in order to 
render such teaching the most effective. This reveals the 
true economy of all right methods, since what aids the 
one aids the other, and what hinders the one hinders the 
other. 

Take the first in the list of these moral sentiments, for 
instance — common respect. All will agree that the teacher 
must secure this from the pupil. Without it, there can 
be no effective teaching of an}' kind. The teacher, in the 
first place, must possess those qualities that awaken and 
command this sentiment or feeling on the part of the 
pupil; and it is yielded without an order and almost with- 
out an effort, in response to duties well performed. 

Suppose, then, the lesson is in reading or arithmetic: 
the teacher is reasonably supposed to -know more about 
these subjects than the pupil, and to be able to give mas- 
terly illustrations of the same. This fact alone will win a 
degree of respect from the pupil, making him more or 
less dependent and deferential. But suppose she add 
other excellent qualities, as she goes on from point to 
point, " from the known to the unknown" in learning, 
unfolding the hidden mysteries and latent beauties of 
these branches, and showing their specific applications to 
human needs and human enjoyments; this sentiment of 
common respect grows and expands till it overleaps the 
mere bounds of respect and fills the little heart with gen- 
uine joy, which may change the respect to esteem and even 
love. 'Tis thus these sentiments grow. Is there lack of 
moral groivth here? If so, then we have mistaken our 
theme. 

But, suppose the teacher fails to enlist the sympathy 
and confidence of the pupil, the loss is irreparable, first to 



54 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

the teacher in the loss of self-respect, and to the pupil, in 
that he loses confidence in and respect for the teacher, in 
about the same ratio. This alone shows that the true 
method of moral teaching resides not in "ordering" the 
sentiment, but in winning it by the proper discharge of 
ordinary duty. The other sentiments are awakened and 
won in a similar manner. Indeed, they will be found 
more powerful in their manifestations and more fruitful in 
their results, since these sentiments are higher as we 
advance, and more powerful in their impressions ; and 
every branch of science and its proper unfolding furnish 
the just occasion for the exercise of these sentiments and 
qualities ; so that with what moral force the sciences them- 
selves possess, combined with those of the teacher and the 
methods employed, we shall have a system of moral 
instruction far surpassing any and all merely perfunctory 
moral teaching. [See moral incentives and moral duties 
further on.] 

Our next general list of ethical attributes are included 
under what we have called, 
II. Moral Habits and Qualities. 
The moral habits are those acquired dispositions and 
traits inclining the human being to acts and practices 
more or less the result of repetition of the act or thing 
involved in the habit itself. And the moral qualities are 
the properties and conditions of the human mind that 
prompt to moral acts. They are : 

1. Impressions or inclinations of a personal character, 
since they relate to the person alone in whom they reside, 
generally causing both the habit and an increased inclination; 
as, 

(a.) Industry, or that disposition or inclination that 
prompts to constant employment, both of body and mind. 
This is the great conservator of human energies aDd of the 



ETHICAL ATTRIBUTES. 55 

human faculties. Without industry or labor there can be 
no real merit and no real progress. Every faculty of man 
was made for exercise ; and industry is both an inclination 
and a habit prompting to the exercises necessary for their 
proper development. Laziness is also largely a habit and 
a vice, whose insidious encroachments destroy more virtue 
than war or intemperance, and it is a sure accompaniment 
of the latter. Strike that foe to human progress and 
human happiness down and the field is cleared of more 
than one-half the opposing forces. Allow it to linger, and 
the contest is prolonged indefinitely. Systematic work is 
the true preventive of crime, and the cure for laziness. 
Morality is therefore promoted by work, much in the same 
manner that legitimate exercise promotes health. The 
conditions are the same, and the law of compensation is 
the same. 

(b.) Sobriety and Temperance or those dispositions and 
tendencies that prompt to sound judgment and staidness 
of character, to moderation in the use of all the necessaries 
of life, temperate in expectations and in pleasures, in 
enjoyments and labor, in food and raiment, not only avoid- 
ing that which is hurtful, but the excess of that which is 
really necessary. This is true temperance. 

These are powerful moral forces, chiefly as restraints 
against excesses of all kinds, and are largely the results of 
cultivation. Numberless opportunities will present them- 
selves in the ordinary school work for the exercise of 
these virtues. 

(c.) Economy or judicious in the use of time, opportunity, 
money and goods ; neither parsimonious nor prodigal, but 
a just balance in the affairs of life ; a companion of 
industry, a promoter of thrift, and an aid to virtue. 
Economy can be taught in schools both by a judicious 
use of property, and a proper division of time, labor and 



56 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

amusements, and a strict observance of the duties assigned 
to these. Industry in the preparation of lessons, modera- 
tion in plays and pleasures, and economy in the use of all 
are virtues that should be practiced every day, and in every 
lesson. 

Here we have an epitome of life, a school of preparation 
for its duties, its trials, its pleasures and responsibilities ; 
and the teacher that can not utilize these opportunities for 
this purpose has not yet learned how to teach, and should 
be retired until suitable preparation is made. This brings 
us to the consideration of the 

2 Relative Qualities, or those states and conditions of the 
human mind that prompt to actions relating to intercourse 
between man and his fellow-man, both in business and pleas- 
ure. They may be stated as follows : 

(a.) Integrity, or moral soundness, trustworthiness. 
It has reference to a balance, or an entirety of motive and 
purpose; the exercise of the whole group of sentiments, 
unbiased by any unworthy aims ; stanchness in the 
maintenance of the right. Moral integrity gives charac- 
ter and force to every virtuous act. It is the rounding 
out of moral character; and the school and family are the 
agencies for its healthy development. 

(b.) Fidelity , or faithfulness in the discharge of duties. 
This is a soldierly quality, and an active element in integ- 
rity. It is carefulness in the performance of work assigned, 
truthfulness applied to trusts, and loyalty in carrying out 
the details of business. Like integrity, it is subject to 
cultivation. It is improved by the exercise of those facul- 
ties that are employed in ordinary school work. 

(c.) Honesty, or uprightness in dealings; ingenuous- 
ness, frankness, open-heartedness, transparent goodness, 
that which does not advertise itself. It embodies both 
the preceding qualities and many shades of kindred sen- 



ETHICAL ATTRIBUTES. 57 

timents. It is universal trustworthiness not only in busi- 
ness, but in thought, purpose and will. Hence a person 
may be faithful and just in all commercial dealings, and 
in social relations, and yet a hypocrite at heart. He may 
be dishonest at heart, since motive determines the merit 
of the act. [See Prop. Ill, and Cors. 1 and 2. ] 

The last group of moral qualities mentioned under this 
general head may be presented as follows: 

3. The absolute moral qualities, or those inhering inde- 
pendently in man, and in his acts, and that stand forth as the 
true elements and exponents of his moral character. They 
are of binding force, and their excellence determines the qual- 
ity of all moral thinking*, speaking and acting. We introduce 
a few leading ones as 

(a.) Truthfulness in thought, word and act. This quality 
is absolute, admitting of no admixture of error, though 
often associated with it. It covers the widest range of 
human actions and moral character. Its cultivation con- 
sists largely in its expansion or application to human 
duties. Being absolute in its essence, it admits of no 
increase in its essential elements, but enters into every 
relation in life, where it is invited and honored. Its cul- 
tivation, therefore, consists in guarding it against any 
admixture or association with error or falsity. 

It is approached on the objective side through the rela- 
tive in form, color, number and proportion, involving sim- 
ilarity and contrast ; and on the subjective side, through 
abstract thought and the observance of those promptings 
of the moral sense, and of those rules of conduct that con- 
form strictly to the Standard of truth, as revealed in 
judgment. Human actions may, therefore, be conformed 
to the absolute, through comparisons of the relative. 
[See also Modes of Culture, Chapter XI, pp. 111.] 

(b.) Purity in thought, word and act. This also is an 



58 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

absolute quality, closely allied to truthfulness, but deriving 
its excellence chiefly from the motive prompting the act. 
It represents many qualities in excellence and enters into 
every good motive to human action, giving characteristic 
shades and tints to all thought, feeling and purpose. It 
admits of no degrees in actual quality, but invites all com- 
parisons in word, act and conduct. It is a perfect standard 
of right, as far as quality is concerned. It commences in 
thought, and rejects all impurity, and approaches nearer 
and nearer the perfect in form, color, harmony and number 
which are but the outer symbols of moral purity. Its cul- 
tivation is subject to the same rules given for the delop- 
ment of the preceding. It is strict truthfulness applied 
to motive, and should be the ruling motive in the develop- 
ment of all scientific and moral truth. 

(c.) Goodness, another general quality, absolute in 
character and universal in its applications. It may exist 
in various degrees of perfection in all human actions, 
covering all other qualities, composed of all others, and 
representing the best in all that pertains to moral senti- 
ment, moral qualities and moral habits. Applied to indi- 
viduals, it expresses the same ideas and thoughts. 

Simple goodness is not opposed to greatness; but, on the 
contrary, it is an essential element in all true greatness. 
It is not a weak quality, nor a negative one. It is positive, 
implying both strength and aggressiveness. It implies the 
exercise of all those sentiments and qualities that purify, 
exalt and embellish human life and character. 

To say that goodness can be taught and cultivated in the 
young, through the judicious application of all school 
duties, is only to say that every desirable quality may be 
cultivated, that every gift and grace may be improved; 
and that life and its duties afford the full measure of 



THE SOCIAL SENTIMENTS AND QUALITIES. 59 

exercise desirable for such culture. The manner of cul- 
tivation is, therefore, the same as in all other qualities. 

We forbear further comment on these qualities here, 
believing that their importance in a course of moral train- 
ing will be readily seen and sufficiently appreciated by the 
thoughtful teacher and student. Their modes of culture 
are the principal things to be considered. But, like the 
preceding qualities, they demand no special time set apart 
for their formal consideration, nor special means employed 
for enforcing their claims. They grow as a necessary part 
of and a result from that culture which gives greatest 
strength, activity and durability to all the powers of mind 
and body. 

Their further importance and modes of culture will be 
seen, when we come to the direct teaching of the common 
branches of science in the schools. 

The Social Sentiments and Qualities. 

The social sentiments and qualities of human nature, 
so-called, because they can best be exercised in a commun- 
ity of interests, are those ethical attributes that arise partly 
from those innate promptings that dispose to virtue and 
partly from man's social relations. They are purelybenev- 
olent in their origin and purpose and are excited mainly 
by objects more or less needy or unfortunate, indicating 
man's mutual dependence in a social way. 

They will be readily understood, both as to their nature 
and importance, without individual descriptions; and their 
cultivation is not different from others already named. 
They are given here both to show the position they occupy 
in a course of moral training and to complete the list of 
attributes in such a course. They must be studied, how- 
ever, and woven into the web of common school duties, 
where they rightfully belong and where they will add 



60 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

strength and beauty to the great fabric of human culture 
and human life. They may be named in pairs for con- 
venience, both from contrasts and similarities. Let them 
all be compared and discussed in the school lessons from 
day to day, pointing out cases or examples where they 
individually apply. 

1. Generosity and Justice. 

2. Compassion and Pity. 

3. Kindness and Mercy. 

4. Gratitude and Thankfulness. 

5. Sympathy and Friendship, etc. 

Other subordinate qualities may be added to this list, as: 

(a.) Magnanimity and Rectitude. 

(b.) Tenderness and Politeness. 

(c.) Commiseration and Condolence, etc., but they are 
readily derived from the foregoing. They all occupy 
important places in the curricula of school duties. They 
constitute a family of refined graces in social life without 
which it would be reft of more than half its pleasures, to 
say nothing of its usefulness. 

The cultivation of these qualities consists in exercising 
them in connection with the ordinary duties of school life, 
to which they add its chief charm. No day, no hour should 
pass without calling some or all of them into practical 
exercise. Indeed, no good teaching can proceed, in a 
course of instruction, that does not exercise these graces. 
That is what the course of study should be planned 
to secure. Without it, it becomes a burden, and some- 
times an absolute hindrance to the development of the 
best that is possible in man. And then the opposites of 
these qualities and graces are sure to grow unless the former 
are called into active use. 

This is what constitutes the depravity of man. His 
moral nature is like a fertile soil. It has possibilities alike 



THE SO CIAL SENTIMEN TS AND Q UALITIES. Gl 

for good and evil; if the first is neglected the second is sure 
to usurp its place. If the good seed is not sown early and 
well, the weeds will surely occupy the soil; and no such 
preoccupancy of this soil will ever dispose it to virtue, but 
to the opposite. And then there is a necessity for con- 
stant culture, that the evil may be repressed, and the good 
encouraged. But the conquest of the former adds strength 
and endurance to the latter. 

Take for example the qualities kindness and mercy, 
justice and generosity, gratitude and thankfulness, and 
what day or even what lesson does not afford opportuni- 
ties for the exercise of some or all these qualities? Kind- 
ness is universal in its elements of tenderness and 
compassion. The same is true of justice and generosity, 
in their relations to property or privileges: and 

" The quality of mercy is not strained," 
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; 
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes: 
'Tis mightiest in the mighty;" 

and it does not require a court at Venice nor a Portia to 
make mercy felt in a school. 

The quality of kindness as opposed to cruelty may often 
be rendered effective as a lesson, or in many lessons, by 
calling attention to the treatment of dumb animals and of 
little children. Incidents may be named or read, and the 
children questioned on real kindness as opposed to or 
distinguished from mere indulgence Kindness never 
appears more beautiful and lovely than when exercised in 
the relief of suffering, or in the defense of the weak and 
helpless. And cruelty never appears more odious than when 
exercised upon dumb animals or little children. It is not 
only cruel but cowardly and mean to treat a poor horse, or 
cow, or even a pig, to kicks and blows because it may have 



62 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

offended by even so much and by no more than the 
exercise of a natural propensity. Is it less cruel aud 
cowardly to treat a child in a similar manner because, for- 
sooth, it may have offended from a like cause, and is help- 
less in the hands of a teacher, parent, or a tyrant? 

It is a question whether, under any circumstances, 
except in cases of defense, we are justifiable in inflicting 
pain as a punishment, upon defenseless dumb animals. 
They scarcely have reason sufficient to apply it as a 
means of reformation, or in vindication of a broken law. 
And little children are but slightly removed from the 
sphere of dumb animals. [See Incentives to Obedience, 
Chapter VIII. See also the customs among Arabs and 
some other nations, in the treatment of their horses 
and other animals; also, the Japanese in the treatment 
of young children.] 

The teacher, if a good one, is the best text-book and 
best interpreter of lessons involving these qualities and 
doctrines, in and by his own acts and words, as indeed, he 
should be in all doctrines and practices relating to moral- 
ity, all ethical principles, and all practices in high moral 
duties. Without such helps, the formal teaching of ethi- 
cal doctrines, and rules for conduct, fall lifeless to the 
ground. It is doubtful, indeed, whether any other than 
the truly moral and good can teach morality, since like 
produces like in all departments of culture. 

This matter is of sufficient importance to warrant an 
outline of the whole subject, to enable the teacher and 
student of morals to study these sentiments, qualities and 
habits in an independent way, approaching them from 
whatever standpoint may suit them best. This will con- 
stitute the most effective study, since it liberates the mind 
from any and all trammels that may come from an attempt 



THE SOCIAL SENTIMENTS AND QUALITIES. 



to master the presentation of the subject in a course of 
formal lessons in a text-book. 

Text-books, however, should always give this freedom to 
the student. The perfunctory lesson-getting and the 
recitation of these have often the effect to narrow the 
thought down to a small compass and to cut off further 
investigation of the subject under consideration. 

Let the student or teacher copy the following scheme of 
ethical attributes, and others in this volume, and present 
them in a series of lessons and discussions in their classes, 
at such intervals as may seem most desirable and profitable. 

r 1. Those implying a species of \ Respect, 
equality among' men, as: ") ^steem, 



Moral Sen- 
timents. 



2. Those implying degrees of 
superiority among men, as: 



Those of a more general na- 
ture and use, as: 



Personal, ( Industry, 

f terminat- -< Sobriety, 

inginself ( Economy. 

II.MoralQual- | 

ities and | Relative to ( Integrity, 

Habits . . ot her \ Fidelity, 

parties. ( Honesty. 



Reverence, 
Veneration, 
Adoration, etc. 



Patriotism, 

Philanthropy, 

Benevolence. 



III. Social sen- 
timents 
and quali- 
ties 



Absolute ( Truthfulness, 
in perfec- < Purity, 
tions. ( Goodness. 



-. j Generosity and 
(I Justice. 

j Compassion and 
* ■ 1 Pity. 

r. j Kindness and 
I Mercy 

a j Gratitude and 
*• | Thankfulness. 

f. j Sympathy and 
°* ( Friendship. 



G4 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Obedience and the Will. — Their Proper Incentives 
Considered. 

Before entering upon a more thorough discussion of 
the moral forces in Science, Art, Literature and Learning, 
and of the special methods of teaching these, as the final 
crowning moral force, it will be necessary to state what is 
meant by obedience-, how it is related to the voluntary 
powers, and what are some of the leading incentives that 
may be employed in cultivating moral power in man. 

Most of the results anticipated from the study and 
practice of the principles discussed in the foregoing, as 
well as those anticipated in what follows, are secured 
through obedience to rightfully constituted authority. Let 
us, therefore, inquire into its nature and peculiarities, and 
the best means of securing it. 

1. Obedience, considered from the standpoint of motive 
may be said to be of two kinds, viz., voluntary and invol- 
untary. The latter should exist, however, only as a pre- 
liminary, or a temporary substitute for the former. It 
may be called mere submission under proper restraints. It 
possesses little, if any, disciplinary merit, until it is 
merged into the more genuine obedience, where the will 
and other moral influences are sufficiently strong to estab- 
lish its moral character. This, also, establishes the true 
conditions of all the moral forces associated with true obe- 
dience. Hence: 

2. Obedience, to be effective in the formation of high 
moral character, is the willing, loyal, loving acquiescence 
in, and acceptance of, the ordinary claims of rightly consti- 
tuted authority, wrought in the higher departments of the 
souVs faculties; and it always produces the peaceable fruits 
of righteousness — (right living). 



OBEDIENCE AND TEE WILL. 65 

If it lack any of these conditions and qualities, it may 
at least be questioned as to its genuineness. 

3. The incentives to acts of obedience must therefore 
be such as not to appeal to any base or unworthy motives, 
or desires, or to vitiate, in any manner, the claims of 
moral sense. (See definition Chap. I.) The fear of pun- 
ishment or the hope of reward, both of which, without 
doubt, enter into all our moral acts, more or less remotely, 
must be so tempered by a sense of moral obligation and 
a love of duty, that all their slavish features on the one 
hand, and sordid propensities on the other, shall be en- 
tirely submerged and neutralized by the higher and holier 
incentives of love and good will. This is not only desirable, 
but possible to the fullest extent, in true obedience. 

4. A clear distinction must also be made, and contin- 
ually maintained between mere submission to the claims of 
authority, and a voluntary acceptance of its requirements, 
and obedience thereto. The first, if prolonged and prac- 
tised, breeds cupidity and cowardice, the second, freedom 
and loyalty. The one degrades, the other ennobles. The 
one is false, the other is true; and yet they are often con- 
founded, the one with the other; at least not sufficiently 
distinguished in practical life . 

For instance: let us suppose it is a school of ordinary 
merit. An offender is ordered to desist from the act of 
offense, without appealing to any higher motive for doing 
so, than the mere convenience, caprice or pleasure of the 
teacher. Without any particular malicious intent the cul- 
prit conceals his mischievous acts and intentions, and con- 
tinues them " on the sly." No one will question his disobedi- 
ence coupled with the meanness of deception, and the teacher 
knows it not, until perchance he is again detected, and repri- 
manded or punished in the ordinary way: and matters again 
move on, and the mischief ceases; but lias the culprit obeyed 



66 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

or merely submitted 1 ? Has the teacher done all in this case 
that is required? (pupils should be required to answer). 

Another is reprimanded or scolded; and ordered to desist 
from annoyance. He does so for the time without a reso- 
lution to reform, or with a mental reservation to resume 
his mischief when opportunity occurs. Has he obeyed? But 
suppose he ceases, though unwillingly, and without such 
mental reservation, has he obeyed? If so, his obedience, as 
a moral element, is weak and inefficient. 

A third is ordered to perform an unpleasant or disagree- 
able duty. He acquiesces, or obeys (?) under protest. He 
fears the consequences of disobedience. Has he obeyed, 
or only submitted ? What is the difference in these two 
conditions? Another is ordered to perform a similar duty, 
and he acquiesces or obeys (?) because he is offered a reward 
for so doing: has he obeyed or only submitted? What 
merit, and to whom? What is the difference in these 
cases, morally? 

The merit in all the above cases of seeming obedience, 
or of quasi obedience is vitiated by a mean, or at least an 
unworthy motive, and therefore is without moral force, 
no reformation is wrought in the higher departments of 
the soul's faculties. But when such an one or any of the 
preceding cases, are brought, by any means, to acknowl- 
edge the wrong, and voluntarily to forsake the same, and 
as cheerfully to enter upon a course of strict and loyal obe- 
dience, he has then complied with the conditions of the law, 
and moral growth is a certain result. 

Another still may be in active rebellion against the 
rightly constituted authority, and he is compelled by 
superior force, either physical or mental or both, to sub- 
mit to control, though unwillingly. He does so, because 
he cannot do otherwise ; and so is helpless in the hands 
of the law, or the authority. His obedience is mere sub- 



OBEDIENCE AND THE WILL. 67 

mission, and the only merit it has is contained in the faot 
that he has submitted. It is, however, more hopeful than 
some of the preceding cases, since the culprit is placed in 
a position in reference to authority, where reformation 
may reach him by wise management on the part of the 
authority. Hence, forced submission may be better than 
unwilling or partial obedience (?), since the chances for 
reformation are usually greater. But this forced submis- 
sion should be resorted to only in cases of willful and 
flagrant disobedience or active rebellion, and then the 
compelling force should be strong, severe and certain. 
Trifling with serious cases of this nature will never answer. 
It often does more hurt than good. It often prolongs the 
difficulty and prevents reformation. But the unnatural 
restraint should be removed as soon as the higher incen- 
tives can be brought to bear upon the case, and as soon as 
sufficient moral force can be aroused and strengthened in 
the offender, to enable him to command the voluntary 
movements, or until he acquire self-control, since all 
reformation is wrought through and by the voluntary 
powers. (Let these problems be discussed.) 

This principle and this practice, in the main, hold good 
in families, in common schools, reform schools, peniten- 
tiaries, work-houses, and in all institutions where reforma- 
tion of offenders is sought as one of the chief objects of 
punishments, or of the restraint of personal liberty, which is 
itself one form of punishment; while the maintenance of 
good order, and the protection and security of society, 
which are also prime objects of government, are most 
effectually secured by reforming the elements of society. 

And we might be permitted to suggest that here is just 
where human laws and human (not humane) institutions 
are weak and inefficient. In the first place, sufficient 
care, wisdom and patience are not exercised, first, in 



68 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

securing entire submission to the claims of justice, and 
second, in changing the submission into voluntary 
obedience; and again, sufficient watchfulness, and care 
to provide suitable employment for those who are in- 
carcerated or in a condition to reform, to shield them 
from the temptations to fall into old vices, are usually 
wanting. The thorough reformation of offenders, as one 
of the prime objects of government, is not sought wisely 
and well: hence the almost universal tendency of crim- 
inals to relapse into former bad habits on being released 
from confinement. 

In too many cases in prisons and in reformatory institu- 
tions, the objects of punishment are overlooked. They 
are made vindictive rather than reformative. The claims 
of justice, as we are disposed to call them, are pushed to 
an extreme, while those of the culprit, equally importu- 
nate and more important, are lightly put aside, notwith- 
standing these latter have the stronger claims upon the 
law. All punitive measures, therefore — municipal or 
state, public or private — should carry with them a large 
infusion of the reformative elements, or they fail in their 
best endeavors and intentions. Hence, 

The objects and aims of all good governments are at least 
threefold, viz.: 

(a.) Protective, in that the rights of person, property 
and reputation, and the peaceable pursuit of happiness 
and standing in community should be secured to all alike. 
These are the just awards of obedience, and their with- 
drawal is one of the punishments meted out to dis- 
obedience. Both may be regarded as incentives for 
obedience to law. They also act as restraints, whereby 
protection is secured to all loyal subjects of the govern- 
ment, while in their lawful pursuits. 

Government should also act as a defense to the weak and 



OBEDIENCE AND THE WILL. 69 

unprotected, both in body and in mind, and also in moral 
habits. It should instruct and strengthen the weak and 
protect the defenseless. But it often fails to do all this, 
and even seizes upon these unfortunates as its lawful vic- 
tims, and punishes for offenses its own folly has prompted. 
Such governments need reforming. 

(b.) Reformative, in that it assumes the right to punish 
for offenses, and to restrain from evil practices — or those 
detrimental to individual and public good — through hope 
of rewards and fear of punishments. The former comes 
chiefly in the way of protection to person, property, etc. 
But punishments should have the same objects in view, 
though the principal one is the reformation of the offender, 
whereby society is made doubly secure, both by warding 
off immediate danger, and by adding elements of strength 
and durability to it as future protection. 

(c.) Conservative, in that its best elements should always 
be prominent in directing and conserving public affairs. 
It should always sympathize with the unfortunate, espe- 
cially the criminal classes ; not in the way of encouraging 
crime, but in provisions for the reformation of these 
classes, recognizing the fact that few, if any, resort to 
crime from choice. 

The government should provide encouragements to 
those undergoing punishment, so that it may not be lost 
as a reformative measure. This encouragement should be 
in the form of a recognition of restored rights after refor. 
macion, and in suitable employments to- those who have 
suffered penalties or reformative measures of any kind. 

By these means the best is conserved and perpetuated, 
both in individuals and in communities ; and the best of 
opportunities are afforded for the cultivation of the higher 
moral qualities : for it must not be forgotten that, even 
among reformed criminals, we often find the strongest and 



70 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

best working elements in society, since the weak and effem- 
inate seldom are disturbers of the public peace. It is the 
strong and vigorous ones that are capable of doing much 
evil, and much good when reformed. 

Of course, much depends upon the form of government, 
the choice of officers as means for carrying it forward, 
and the enactment of laws and their prompt execution — all 
these must be taken into consideration. Governments 
and Constitutions should be, as far as possible, for the 
people, of the people and by the people, so far at least as 
the people are wise and capable ; for majorities should 
rule only when they are right. This is one of the grand 
tests of good governments; but the greatest difficulty is in 
determining the right. One of the weak points in most 
popular governments is that they are satisfied in exacting 
the demands of the law in civil suits, and inflicting penal- 
ties for crimes, by neither of which is the offender neces- 
sarily reformed, but often made worse. Governments of 
all sorts thus become vindictive ; and, by antagonizing 
some of the independent elements in human nature, often 
make it weaker and worse. And by instituting barriers 
against wrongs that may happen, they often excite to 
temptations instead of removing them. The same is true 
of schools and families, where appeals are made to the 
lower motives first. The only relief exists in the thorough 
education of the man — soul and body. 

[See Incentives, next chapter.] 

(d.) The offender, or criminal, after punishment, prop- 
erly inflicted, is supposed to be conquered. At least he has 
submitted to the claims of justice; and though it may be 
an unwilling submission, it is, nevertheless, a condition 
in which the authority can treat with him more on the 
terms of equality. As far as the claims of justice are 
concerned, he has paid the debt, or at least accepted its 



THE WILL. 71 

conditions, though it may be unwillingly, and is now 
more like a free man. It is now the duty of the govern- 
ment to offer such encouragement as shall lead to a vol- 
untary acceptance of the claims of justice and the exercise 
of the still higher motives to voluntary obedience and citi- 
zenship. 

Punishment has, in the first place, reduced him to sub- 
mission and a state of comparative helplessness, in order 
that the government or authority may step in, and, as in 
the case of young children, substitute and suggest the 
higher motives to obedience; for, when duly conquered, 
the rebellious nature ceases; but, unlike the case of a child, 
it leaves a certain weakness and a tendency to relapse; 
hence the greater need of care. In this blank or uncer- 
tain state, the moral powers are subject to easy control, 
yet equally subject to fall into ways of evil again. 

Hence the subject or offender, thus reduced, becomes an 
object of human sympathy and human help, instead of an 
outcast, shunned by those whose help he needs, and thus 
driven again into ways of vice. Therefore abundance of 
suitable employment should always be furnished by the 
government, be it family, school or state; whereby the 
faculties that, unemployed, promp to evil, may be otherwise 
employed, and thus restored, and conserved in their best 
estate. 

II. The Will. 

This power is an important factor in the exercise and 
production of moral qualities. Hence all appeals made to 
the moral nature, through or by means of this grand motor 
to human action, must be made with wise reference to its 
legitimate functions or natural characteristics, which may 
be stated, in brief, as follows : 

1. The mind has a passive nature or susceptibility, 



72 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

subject to soliciting motives : and these conditions con- 
stitute the initial steps in all volitional acts. 

2. The mind has elective power : i. e., freedom to choose 
between alternatives. This power, of course, is influenced 
by the judgment and reason, as subjective forces. 

3. The mind has, also, executive energy, or power to 
execute, or to carry into effect what has been decided by 
judgment and sanctioned by conscience, and even to do 
those things that conscience and judgment condemn ; but 
in all such cases it is swayed by overpowering soliciting 
motives. But the motives or incentives which constitute 
the objective forces should range so that the appeals to 
this faculty of the human mind shall be in harmony with 
the moral sense. 

The will, therefore, is, 1st, that susceptibility the mind 
has to be effected by motives to acts of volition ; 2d, the 
power it has to elect, or choose or refuse the acts suggested, 
aided by judgment and reason ; 3d, the power it has, after 
choice is made, to execute the acts decided upon ; and in 
all this, the mind simply exercises its native freedom and 
volutionary power. 

The final determinations of the mind, in all volitional 
acts, are reached in somewhat the following order, the 
conditions being favorable: 

1. Intentions to do or not to do may exist in the mind 
in various degrees of force. They may be so weak as to 
amount to nothing more than a mere inclination, in which 
case they correspond to the passive nature of the will; 
and then again, owing to the force of impressions, they 
may arise to something resembling resolutions; but if the 
matter end here, the ultimate decisions may never be 
reached; and the will, in such case, is nothing more than 
a mere passive instrument, subject to continual fluctua- 
tions, and governed by the soliciting motives alone. We 



THE WILL. 73 

call this weakness of will, or want of will power. Hence, 
many well-meaning people fail to accomplish anything 
worthy in life — or unworthy either, for that matter — simply 
because they lack the power to come to conclusions of any 
kind, or to carry out their convictions, however clear. 
This failing is usually accompanied by a want of concentra- 
tion of mind, which keeps them continually striving, but 
never able to come to a full knowledge of the truth. 

2. Resolution. — This is a step in the moral scale, higher 
than mere intention, which latter may be both tame and 
passive. The resolution is more or less positive, and, 
rightly directed, reinforces the mere intention, which 
becomes, at once, more of an active agent. The mind, 
then, in its volitional state, corresponds to the elective 
power of the will. When a resolution is formed in the 
mind, it is generally understood that a choice is made 
between alternatives; and that it is ready to act, and yet, 
unless this, too, is reinforced and strengthened, invigor- 
ated and quickened by something more certain and deter- 
minate, the person may " resolve and re-resolve and die the 
same." But let the resolution rise as high in the scale of 
moral force as, 

3. Determination to act, corresponding to the execu- 
tive energy of the will, then stand aside! Something 
will be done ! A moral force is then let loose in the 
world, that " will find a way or make it." The thing in 
question will be done, if it is not impossible, and seeming 
impossibilities melt before the determined force of will 
guided by intelligence and virtue. 

There have been periods in the world's history when 
this characteristic of the will has come to the rescue just 
at the right time, changing seeming defeat into victory, and 
deciding the fate of nations and countries. The same is 
true in the lives and fortunes of men. The critical 



74 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

moment is .when the decision is made between right and 
wrong, or between action and inaction ; and the determin- 
ate power, with full force, pronounces Yes or No, which 
puts an end to all strife, forever. Temptations, however 
severe, yield before the magic of these words, pronounced 
from the heart. 

This executive energy is, as it were, the electric shock of 
the faculties of the soul, that sets all in motion, each one 
rising to its maximum height in human energy, all follow- 
ing the leadership of this masterly faculty — the will, ful- 
filling the behests of the judgment and reason, while the 
moral sentiments have full play. 

In all these cases, therefore, the appeals should be 
made in the order of the higher motives first, and 
should descend in the scale until the effective ones are 
reached. But it is not always best to make the 
appeals direct. The motive or incentive may be so well 
concealed or lost in the appeal itself, as not to excite either 
curiosity, or concern of any kind. But it should simply 
set in motion a group of mental powers whose exercise is 
principally designed to produce the moral effect. This 
will be shown more fully as we proceed. 

How, then, may we cultivate the best faculties of man, 
and thereby give them the ascendancy in the affairs of 
life? Let this question be kept continually in mind ; for 
its answer will not appear directly, nor in a few words. 
It must be gathered from the many conditions of human 
affairs, and from the continual strife to which these powers 
are subjected, and to the continual tests of loyalty to duty 
that beset the entire pathway of human existence. 

To illustrate : when we wish to develop and strengthen 
any particular part of the human body, we direct the phys- 
ical exercise to that particular part : So, if we wish to 
develop and strengthen generosity or justice, patriotism or 



THE WILL. 75 

patience, honesty or benevolence, we put the child in a 
position where these faculties or sentiments shall be 
appealed to and exercised in a lawful way. They will not 
grow without lawful exercise any more than the intellectual 
faculties will grow without exercise . The modes of exercise 
will be determined largely by the conditions in life, and 
the employments pursued. 

A few general directions may be given here, whereby the 
best faculties of the human soul may be improved. 

1 . By actual practice of those virtues we ivould have appear 
prominent in the child, by the children themselves. This is 
the surest, safest and most economical means of developing 
them, and of fitting then to bear the burdens of life. The 
school should be so planned and conducted, as to represent 
life work. This is its highest function. It is its declared 
object. Failing in this it fails in all other respects, and 
falls an easy prey to vice. 

2. The entire work of the school-room can be so 
arranged, and so practiced that every lesson and every 
study shall be a lesson in behavior and of high moral cul- 
ture. And so far from detracting from other objects, as 
the acquisition of knowledge, and the performance of 
other duties, as study and recitation, this will only enliven 
and strengthen, purify and beautify and utilize all others. 
This will also appear, further on. 

3. By personal example, as in the noble, ingenuous, 
frank, honest and unselfish acts and words of the teacher. 
This, perhaps, is one of the most powerful incentives with 
most children. They are imitative beings, and example gen- 
erally appeals to them with greater force than mere words. 
But even example needs practice, or, at least, practical 
illustration in the duties of the school-room. Noble exam- 
ple in the lives of living men and in literature may be 



76 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

discussed and imitated in connection with the same duties: 
and 

4. Precept is not without its merit, if it can be taught so 
as not to make it altogether a perfunctory matter. It then 
loses its greatest force, both as a stimulant and moral 
restraint. Indeed, it sometimes leads to its own violation, 
by calling attention to the evils it is intended to counter- 
act. But, by instilling into the hearts and minds of the 
young those noble sentiments and maxims which are the 
inheritance of the wise and good of all ages, we not only 
fertilize the human heart, but plant and cultivate some of 
the purest sentiments of morality. 

But the good we would develop in man is not forth- 
coming by simply calling for it ; neither is it a spontane- 
ous growth. It is a matter of careful and wise culture. 
The good that lasts is of slow and gradual growth. We 
can not command its instantaneous development, any more 
than we can command the growth of plant or animal. It, 
like other things of growth, has its infancy of weakness, 
its adolescence and growth, and a maturity of strength and 
endurance. Goodness is a plant of rare growth, and is 
often dwarfed and weakened by our awkward efforts to 
promote its growth. It has its laws of activity and lines 
of movement, that may not be turned aside. It is largely 
the product of self-activity and patient waiting. 

" Heaven is not reached by a single bound. 
We build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies; 

And we mount to its summit roundby round." 

Neither can we secure the desired results of moral 
instruction by presuming upon it, or by pointing out its 
excellencies. It were as inconsistent to expect to develop 
moral character by merely preceptive teaching, as to expect 
to develop scholarly qualities in a similar way. "Be 



» 



TEE WILL. 77 

truthful/' " Be honest," " Be industrious/' "Be good," 
are about equivalent to saying " Be mathematical/' " Be 
historical/' " Be rhetorical," " Be learned," "Be wise. 
Precept will not produce scholarship without the required 
labor and practice. Neither will it produce moral qual- 
ities and habits without the necessary labor and practice. 
The pupil in learning must commence in an orderly way, 
and work and study and grow into these scholarly states ; 
so he must, in morals. There is no law of development 
outside of labor. The common maxim, " We learn to do 
by doing/' has its counterpart in morals. We learn to be 
what we desire to be, by being and doing ; by doing the 
things involved in the conduct and lives of those who 
possess these virtues, and by being what we seem to be. 

For instance, truth is developed by telling the truth, 
doing the truth, thinking the truth; for, as before stated, 
truth resides in science, in forms, colors, proportions or 
harmony. It is also one of the elements in true beauty, 
and resides in comparisons, contrasts and relations. The 
whole realm of nature and of true art abounds in elements 
of beauty and truth. 

Harmony is truth as well as beauty, harmony of sounds, 
colors, forms, proportions, movments, etc., and true edu- 
cation simply liberates and develops and harmonizes man's 
moral nature to this world of truth and beauty. 

There are also many phenomenal falsehoods in the dis- 
proportion and want of harmony of these elements, as well as 
in conduct and words. These must be guarded against, as 
demoralizing in their effects upon mind and character. 
They are apt to escape the notice of the uneducated, and 
even the ordinary observed, yet all the more mischievous 
on this account. They exist, not only in the too common 
exaggerations in language and expression, as in the hollow 
and insincere professions of regard, and the hypocritical 



78 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

pretensions to friendship, so common among all classes, but 
also in overwrought ornamentation in person and attire, 
the furnishing of apartments, the choice and the hanging 
of pictures, inharmonious and exaggerated coloring in 
dress, and the wrong blending of them in drapery, etc. 

The want of harmony anywhere is a, phenomenal false- 
hood, which predisposes the mind to indulge it elsewhere 
than in dress, in forms, colors, proportions, etc. No won- 
der, then, that children go astray from birth, especially 
where their whole environment is one' monstrous-falsehood 
or distortion of these elements of beauty and truth; and 
where their, as yet, untaught ears and eyes are greeted 
with discord and their first prattlings are in lies. 

Reform this environment; purify this much muddled 
pool of social disorder. Elevate the moral sentiments by 
educating them in simple honesty and refined purity, as 
the faculties of the mind are brought in daily contact with 
life and its duties; and the set rules and the precepts of 
morality will then become an easy task, if not an unneces- 
sary one. 

And what is said of the few moral sentiments that have 
been noticed, is true also of all of them, as patriotism, 
kindness, courtesy, modesty, etc., etc. Honesty, pure and 
untarnished, is perhaps one of the rarest gifts and graces, 
that adorn human character. Few, if any, in all their social 
intercourse, or even in their commercial relations and deal- 
ings, are perfectly honest. Few would be willing to have all 
their conduct and dealings, their words and thoughts and 
motives exposed to the pure sunlight of truth, or even to 
the gaze of their fellow-men. And yet the simple teach- 
ing of these graces in connection with our ordinary school 
work will certainly make a vast difference in the conduct 
and habits of the coming man and woman. The experi- 
ment were, at least, worth a trial. 



VOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE AND DUTY. 79 

Much more could be said and written on this part of our 
present theme; but we leave it to the reader, the thinker 
and the doer of good deeds, to finish what is really only 
begun here. 

We must now turn our attention to the consideration 
of those incentives that may be used in order to secure the 
results anticipated in the foregoing. 

Much — yea, we may say all depends upon the spirit and 
purpose of the teacher. He must comedown from his 
perch of professional pride, and mingle with the common 
herd — so to speak — if he would lift them up, and light them 
up with those glorious tints of intelligence and virtue, 
which are alike the heritage of all, 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Incentives to Voluntary Obedience and Duty. 

These incentives, as before stated, may be so adjusted 
to the child's understanding and educational want as to 
bring them to bear upon his nature,, somewhat in the 
order of their excellence, estimated from a purely moral 
point of view. 

The object is to induce, as far as possible, voluntary 
action on the part of the child, from the higher motives; 
and thereby to cultivate the higher moral qualities and 
sentiments, since the quality of the conduct, in a purely 
moral sense, is determined from the motive. [See Prop. 
HI., Cor. 1, page 16.] 

Obedience is the great central source and object in 
moral culture. Through it we reach all the moral senti- 
ments and qualities. Obedience, not in outward act 
alone; - but obedience in thought, spirit and purpose 
(intellect, sensibility and will) — the submissive blending of 



80 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

all the incentives, in harmony with the laAvs of growth, 
and of the standard of right — the subordination of the 
will-power to the demands of conscience and enlightened 
judgment. 

Obedience, as already stated, is of two kinds, viz., the 
voluntary, or the willing, loyal, loving acquiescence in 
and acceptance of the demands of rightly constituted 
authority: and the involuntary or the unwilling sub- 
mission to these claims, forcibly presented, as a temporary 
means of securing the voluntary obedience with all its 
higher incentives, as a means of perpetuating it. We. 
shall devote this chapter to the claims of voluntary obedi- 
ence and the means of securing it. 

The means or appeals made use of in order to secure 
this higher form of obedience, may be arranged in the 
following order, and their application to the ordinary 
pupil should follow the same order, as far as circum- 
stances will permit. 

1. The appeals to the purely benevolent impulses of tbe 
human mind : those that find their highest gratification out- 
side of mere self or selfish desires. They arise from the home 
and home environment ; hence their name. They may be sub- 
divided in brief as follows: 

(a.) Tlie Home or Domestic Impulses* are those that 
appeal to a disposition implanted in childhood to please, 
and to be profited by pleasure in the social circle. The 
object of the affection and the act may be parent, brother 
or sister, playmate, teacher or friend. This impulse is 
strong in childhood, both because of pleasure derived 
from conferring favors, and because of the dependent 
character of childhood. Parental and filial affection are 
based largely upon this feeling. Its existence in childhood 

* It is thought by some, that unless these home benevolent feelings are 
duly exercised, hence cultivated, that the malevolent feelings are sure to 
usurp their places. The thought is worth considering. 



VOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE AND DUTY. 81 

in such a dependent state, offers the skillful teacher the 
desired opportunity to develop it into a purely moral 
principle, which not only includes many moral sentiments 
and qualities, as respect, esteem, love, etc., but gives rise, 
also, to other sentiments of a kindred character. The 
opposite of this disposition is a perversion of moral 
nature, and can not exist where these feelings are encour- 
aged and cultivated. Hence its ingredients need not be 
named, much less cultivated. 

(b.) Appeals to a disposition or willingness to suffer 
inconvenience, and to sacrifice self for the good of others: 
a spirit more of beneficence than benevolence, which 
rightly cultivated develops into patriotism or love of 
country, laws and institutions. This, too, is a natural 
impulse in childhood, existing in various degrees of 
activity. It lies very near the home feeling spoken of 
above, and it may be developed in the home, school and 
country. It is active benevolence. It is opposed to 
selfishness . Its cultivation leads directly to 

(c.) A desire to do good to all mankind, or general benev- 
olence. It exists in an embryonic state in early childhood; 
and its cultivation and development into this higher form 
of activity is but the legitimate outcome of right modes of 
culture or teaching, as will be shown further on. It also 
leads to a still more marked characteristic, not infrequently 
witnessed among men of high moral sentiment and cul- 
ture; viz. : 

(d.) A willingness to suffer, not only for friejid and 
country, but for the cause of truth and justice, and for 
the oppressed of all lands and nations . This is not an 
uncommon exhibition of human sympathy, where the mind 
is broadened in the principles of the universal brotherhood 
of the races. History abounds in examples of this kind; 
and the exercise of this feeling gives us examples of the 



82 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

most exalted love of truth and right. But its full exercise 
leads to a still higher, perhaps the highest and most 
unselfish, patriotic, and benevolent feeling of which the 
human heart is capable; viz.: 

(e.) A willingness to suffer for the good of enemies. This 
accords with the highest conceptions of unselfish love. 
The highest precepts of morality can scarcely reach this 
point, it is divine and yet it is possible and compatible 
with man's moral nature spiritualized to the highest degree. 
Indeed it is the legitimate product of the human mind 
under right culture and must be sought only through the 
superior exercise of the moral and spiritual powers in har- 
mony with the laws of their growth. To this maybe added, 
lastly, 

(/. ) A desire to do good or right for the sake of right, 
or for the mere pleasure of it. This also is a legitimate 
outcome of the foregoing principles, fully tested in high 
culture. It perhaps does not rank as high in the scale of 
pure morality as some of those preceding it, since the 
pleasure derived from doing good may be regarded some- 
what in the light of a reward. But it stands in striking- 
contrast with that doubtful adage, "Honesty is the best 
policy," etc. 

It should be the daily endeavor of the teacher or parent 
to keep the matter of mere policy as far in the background 
as possible. The common intercourse of teacher and 
pupil, of parent and child, of citizen and state or govern- 
ment, will usually afford just opportunity for the exercise 
and development of all these traits of human character. 
Where these are wanting, they should be supplied from some 
quarter. History abounds in examples. The following 
incentives are not entirely benevolent, but occupy an inter- 
mediate ground, as it were, between the purely benevolent 
and the selfish; or between those that look entirely beyond 



VOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE AND DUTY. 83 

self-interest for their gratification, and those that look 
mainly to personal gratification. They may be briefly 
stated as follows: 

2. Appeals to the semi-social feelings and desires as distin- 
guished from the purely benevolent moral impulses and desires, 
discernible in the preceding*. 

They afford ample opportunity for the cultivation of the 
moral character of the pupil. As intimated above, this 
class of appeals is not intended alone for the social qual- 
ities, but rather as a convenient transition from the home 
to the world outside; and for the exercises of those ethical 
attributes that belong chiefly to the school and to school 
etiquette — one remove from the family and kindergarten, 
and bordering upon the world life as represented in the 
school: among which may be named: 

(a.) A desire for happiness through the exercise of 
such social qualities, and the performance of such duties 
as are usually required in school work and school recitations. 

The motive is not entirely unselfish, since the gratifi- 
cation of the desire leads to personal enjoyment and 
improvement, and yet these objects are so commendable in 
themselves, as to redeem them entirely from any taint -of 
un worthiness. 

Happiness is the universal aim of the human family. 
No one exists, perhaps, that seeks misery and suffering. All 
our efforts may be said to be directed toward enjoyment. 
The difference in men in this regard is only in the manner 
of seeking it. The school and the refinements of educa- 
tion, rightly directed, open up directly upon these avenues 
of enjoyment. Hence the refinement and the means of 
attaining it, both conspire to the same end, the moral 
elevation of the pupil. 

(b.) A desire for mutual gains and benefits, or a desire 
to accommodate others as a means of promoting one's own 



84 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

interest and enjoyment. This, it will be seen, is a kind of 
semi-social quality bearing strongly upon the commercial 
side of society; and it corresponds to the period of culture 
in which that group of sciences, representing these inter- 
ests, are brought into prominence. 

In this age of the world, this feature of human, activity 
is an important one. It has become a chief interest. It 
is business: but all business, and all pleasure, and all 
employments of whatever kind should cultivate, not kill. 
They should cultivate the better qualities of human nature, 
rather than to dwarf and deform them. Those that do 
not thus cultivate should be discontinued as soon as pos- 
sible, either as needless or harmful. Society can never 
grow much better so long as these violations of its social 
and commercial laws are continued with such flagrant 
disregard. 

No pains should be spared in the school and in the 
family, to chasten and refine these propensities, as a means 
of preparation for life duties, and as a means also of 
removing these desires as far as possible from the shameful 
abuse of them. Dishonest dealing has become, not only a 
habit, but a legalized trade, whereby a man may cheat his 
neighbor with impunity, provided he do it according to 
prescribed rules. Instances may be given further on. 

This is a feature in our commercial relations upon which 
cupidity feeds, and dishonesty finds ready protection. [See 
Chapter XIV.] 

(c.) A desire for personal improvement, or intellectual 
culture and refinement of manners. This is not only a 
commendable desire, but a source of mutual benefit; for it 
will not be difficult to impress all the members of a school, 
or of a community, with the belief that the improvement 
of one member is, by reflection, the improvement of every 
other member. This is a powerful impulse to scholarship 



VOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE AND DUTY. 85 

as well as conduct in school life, and everywhere, where 
this sentiment prevails. 

The acquisition of knowledge, and the mutual improve- 
ment of the members of a school, are some of those latent 
forces, of which we can take but little account, but of 
whose moral influence there can be but little doubt. 
Once let this sentiment obtain a prominent place among 
incentives in a school, and moral growth is certain ; 
unless, indeed, this sentiment is stimulated and kept alive 
by an impure and unholy desire to improve oneself or his 
condition at the expense of a rival. Political life offers 
the greatest temptations to abuse this sentiment, or desire. 

(d.) A desire for place and standing, therefore, is closely 
allied to the foregoing. This desire in society and busi- 
ness has its origin and counterpart in school life, amid 
the strivings and struggles for mastery. But it is a 
legitimate feeling or desire, since no progress could be 
made without efforts that partake more or less of these 
peculiarities. It is not only allowable when properly 
tempered by a benevolent desire for others, but really 
a commendable trait, both because it urges to higher 
attainment, and enlarges our sphere of usefulness. 

It is closely allied to all the preceding incentives and 
desires, and is therefore cultivated and refined by the 
same or similar means. A proper division and use of 
time and opportunities will be demanded here so that the 
waste of energies may be prevented, and that study and 
improvement may become a necessity from habit. But 
an overweening desire for place and power must be 
checked at every point, by all proper restraints, and all 
wholesome discipline. Abnormal growth is sometimes 
worse than no growth at all. And again — 

(e) The desire for material gain may be utilized in moral 
culture, since it is one of the chief prompters to effort 



8G ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

and duty. It is at the foundation of all industries and 
all progress. When this desire is properly indulged, it 
closes the door against most of the prevailing vices of the 
age. And then there is nothing in the legitimate gratifi- 
cations of this desire in any way antagonistic to the purest 
morals and soundest growth, both of individuals and 
communities. 

Remark 1. The foregoing list of desires and their ap- 
propriate appeals may seem tedious to some ; but it must 
not be forgotten that moral growth is generally slow in its 
processes, and a product of common, unobtrusive, and, to 
a large extent silent influences, making their appeals in 
the ordinary affairs of life. But it is the silent forces of 
nature that work the most beneficent results. The temp- 
est, the earthquake and the fire are mighty forces in their 
way, but they are mostly destructive in their energies ; 
and, fortunately, limited in their action. But the sun- 
shine, the dews and the showers, are so common, universal 
and so quiet as scarcely to excite attention; yet their 
results in the great ongoing changes in nature are always 
beneficent and beyond calculation, good. 

Remark 2. Nothing in all the foregoing list of semi- 
selfish desires and appeals, must be used in any manner to 
stimulate unholy ambition of any kind, or to pamper 
selfishness. These incentives must, therefore, be used 
with great caution. They occupy a kind of intermediate 
ground, between the purely benevolent appeals, and those 
of a purely selfish character — which we now propose to con- 
sider — and therefore more liable to abuse, since they may 
be mistaken the one for the other. 

(3) Appeals to Self-love, Pride, and to Personal Satisfaction. 

This may bo regarded as purely selfish ; but it must 
be remembered that enlightened selfishness is a commenda- 
ble trait in human nature. It will lead every man to kind 
treatment of his fellow-man, because love begets love; 
and a desire for the good opinion of others will lead a 
man to strive for it, and to be worthy of it, to earn it. 



VOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE AND DUTY. 87 

It will lead a man even to the practice of the " Golden 
Rule/' since it measures that love which we owe to others 
by the love we bear to ourselves. Every man's interest, 
therefore, stands upon a common basis. 

This group of appeals stands among the strongest of 
incentives to human action. This again, arises, proba- 
bly, from their direct and personal character. They ad- 
dress one's enlightened selfishness in such a manner as 
to increase self-respect and ivorthy conduct. The char- 
acteristics of this group may be presented as follows : 

{a) Self-respect, or a manly dignity based on merit: 
a desire to appear well in one's own estimation, as well 
as in that of others. Self-respect is the base of true gen- 
tility. It is the proper medium between self-importance 
or vanity on the one hand, and servility, cowardice, a 
morbid sense of inferiority and want of confidence, on 
the other. A man who has a too exalted opinion of him- 
self, or one who lacks confidence in his own just ability, 
always appears at a disadvantage. He can never com- 
mand the respect or esteem of his fellows. 

(b) Respect for others is only an application of the 
same sentiment to others that we entertain for ourselves, 
with slight differences. It is reciprocal in most cases, 
and measured by merit. It leads to such treatment of 
equals or inferiors as shall best comport with their inter- 
ests and happiness. And then it also implies a feeling 
of regard for the good opinion of our fellows, whether 
in the same, or in different stations. This feeling is 
subject to the same limitations as that of self-respect. 
It acts as a powerful restraint upon human conduct, and 
•hence should have a place among all worthy objects. Its 
cultivation is secured by a proper regard for the rights 
of person and reputation of those with whom we associate. 

(c) Ambitious rivalry in class, grade, or in society, is 



88 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

another strong human incentive to duty or effort. It 
is somewhat dangerous, however, because a little too much 
is worse than none at all. It needs all those wise restraints 
which ? while nourishing a healthy rivalry, shall prevent 
any undue advantage by those who strive for excellence. 
When men are moved by this ambition, and become heated 
in the eager pursuit, they are apt to overlook those nicer 
distinctions and deferences that should govern rivals. 
When this happens, the rivalry then becomes odious, and 
should be restrained or abandoned. The school is espe- 
cially liable to this abuse, since it becomes necessary, some-' 
times, to appeal to the most available impulse. Great 
care, therefore, must be exercised in class and in grade, 
to the end that no unfair advantage be taken by con- 
testants for places of distinction. The school should 
hold out no inducements to such distinctions that, when 
won, would either stimulate vanity on the part of the 
winner, or discouragement to the loser. If honors are 
offered they should be distributed to the most worthy 
and deserving, irrespective of any apparent success. In 
other words, " they should be placed where they will do 
the most good." 

(d) A love of approbation or praise is another delicate 
desire in the human make-up, requiring the utmost care 
as to incentives, etc. This desire for praise exists ab- 
normally in some natures, and hence needs wise restraints ; 
and, in others, it is scarcely perceptible, and needs stimu- 
lating. The first condition is the more general. Judicious 
praise, judiciously administered, is a* healthy stimulant to 
some natures, while to others, praise is but the food for 
vanity and self-importance. The former natures should 
be exalted, while the latter should be humbled. In both, 
a just meed of praise, or approbation, should be awarded 
for noble effort rather than for success, since the latter 



VOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE AND DUTY. 89 

may be either accidental or unworthy ; the former never 
can be either. And then again, success is usually its own 
reward, while failure, if following laudable effort, may 
need the stimulant of praise — not the failure — but the 
effort. This may also disappoint the morbid expectations 
of the proud — a wholesome rebuke — and encourage the 
modest desires of the weak and timid — a wholesome 
stimulant. 

(e) The use and abuse of percentages and periodical 
reports of scholarship and conduct. There is, perhaps no 
school incentive, now in general use, about which there is 
greater diversity 'of opinion ; or one concerning which the 
moral effects are more doubtful, if not dangerous. And 
perhaps there is no motive or incentive held out to pupils 
in the school, subject to greater abuse, especially if the 
reports are based upon the self-reporting system, which in 
itself is all right if properly guarded. It is powerful both for 
good or evil. The objections to percentages and other sim- 
ilar devices arise chiefly from two sources. The one consists 
in the great difficulty, and in fact the impossibility of 
making fair and just estimates of merit, or indeed of 
whatever criterion upon which the report may be based. 
The other is the great danger of exciting animosity and ill 
will among the pupils. These, aside from the great tempta- 
tions offered for deceit, fraud and falsehood in the reports, 
where these are depended upon for merit, or for grade, 
would be sufficient to warrant the rejection, or the discon- 
tinuance of an incentive so dangerous to the morals of the 
pupils. And yet, with some teachers — a very few — the 
self-reporting system, though not a necessary part of 
'■the percentage and reporting system/' may be used for 
the cultivation of truthfulness and honesty. Let the 
teacher study this. 

(/) Rewards and prizes. These are closely allied to 



90 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

the foregoing, and are perhaps of still more doubtful pro- 
priety. They are usually given either for excellence in 
scholarship, or for conduct, and sometimes for both ; and 
both or all, are subject to great abuse. 

In the first place it is offering a reward for doing that 
which ought to be considered a sufficient reward in and 
of itself. It is tantamount to paying a man for benefit- 
ing himself, or rewarding him for success. It is also 
placing a material value upon efforts whose real merits 
can never be known. This lowers it as a moral force, if it 
does not rob it completely of all merit in a moral sense. 

In the second place the after-influences are usually bad, 
especially upon the successful candidate for prizes or 
honors. He is too apt, either from conceit, or from over- 
exertion, to cease from further effort or exertion and 
to relapse into indifference, relying for success upon his 
honors, which soon fade away. Hence, our first prize 
men, and first honor men are seldom heard of after their 
great effort. They sink out of sight, or are supplanted in 
business or scholarship by the plodders — the no honor 
men. 

Therefore, unless prizes and honors, and such like 
incentives can be relieved from these dangerous features 
and guarded against the above-named abuses, it were 
better never to resort to them. Rewards of merit are less 
objectionable, if indeed the merit can really be deter- 
mined. There are other incentives, free from these objec- 
tions, healthy in their tone, wise in their provisions, and 
of far greater moral and intellectual value, that may be 
used with safety. 

But if excellence, intellectual, physical or moral, must 
be bought, it is vitiated in the very act, because of the 
impure motive. And if the candidate for scholarship or 
for excellence of any kind, cannot be induced to put forth 



INVOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE. 91 

his best efforts (which by the way is not usually the case 
under the highest pressure), without resort to such doubt- 
ful and dangerous incentives, it is doubtful whether or 
not he is worth the trial. But if rewards can be given 
where they are most deserved, and where they are likely 
to be free from the objections above mentioned, then let 
the teacher be free to give, but not otherwise. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Incentives to Involuntaky Obedience. 

Involuntary obedience, or submission under restraints, 
requires a different class of incentives. It pre-supposes 
disobedience or offense on the part of the subject of it. 
It is that form requiring, or which has required, interfer- 
ence with personal rights, and liberty of a certain kind. 
These rights are, by virtue of disobedience or crime, sup- 
posed to be forfeited on the part of the offenders. They 
are naturally and rationally forfeited by supposed abuse of 
privileges, and a refusal to accept the terms upon which 
they are conferred in the first place, and upon which they 
may be regained when lost. They are the natural inherit- 
ance of all good citizens. 

The first class of these incentives to this incipient obe- 
dience and duty may be stated under the following 

1. Restraints. 

These may be regarded the milder forms of interference 
with personal liberty, and those that possess a degree 
of leniency which allows the offender time and opportun- 
ity for reflection and reformation, usually removing him 
from associates, and the temptations that may have 
caused the disobedience in the first place. They may 
consist of 



92 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

(a) A denial of the natural rights and privileges, or 
those that come to him by virtue of birth, society and edu- 
cation, such as home, friends, and the right to pursue the 
ordinary avocations of life. 

With these may be classed the political rights, or the 
right to participate in the management of affairs. And 
while these conditions seem to point to a period in the life 
of the offender, when he has come into the full possession 
of rights, social, political and otherwise, or in the full 
enjoyment of citizenship ; yet the school and the family 
contain all these conditions and elements of culture, 
necessary to bring him into the full exercise of these priv- 
ileges. The child should take his first lessons in obe- 
dience, and industry, and citizenship, in the family and 
in the school, which constitute the community for prac- 
tice. This is the great mission of these institutions. 
They are culpable if they fail in this matter. 

Another class of restraints may be called 

(b) A denial or withdrawal of acquired rights and priv- 
ileges, such as those that come to good citizens by virtue 
of industry, good management, and by inheritance. 
And while, according to the laws of most countries, 
crimes do not work forfeiture of inheritance, yet the com- 
mon sentiment of the people is such that the full enjoy- 
ment of these by the culprit is denied, in that he is 
usually cut off from ordinary pursuits. The law has a 
right to inflict fines and penalties for misdemeanors. 

These conditions also exist in the school and in the 
family, though not precisely in the same form, and their 
proper improvement would greatly diminish the violations 
of common law in the subsequent life. 

(c) Confinement and separation from all that can 
minister to the personal comfort of the offender, socially, 



INCENTIVES TO INVOL UNTART OBEDIENCE. 03 

politically and otherwise, except the mere necessaries of 
life and means of reformation. 

On this principle the common or statutory law lays its 
Lands upon criminals and places them in situations where 
they can at least face their crimes in a quiet way, and hold 
such self examination as may lead to reformation. This 
opportunity, however, is not always improved ; neither 
are the chances for such reformation always the most 
favorable, in consequence of the careless manner in which 
they are usually extended to the culprit. But if schools 
and families would more frequently resort to this mode of 
punishment or restraint, instead of the too common 
vindictive and retaliatory measures, it would offer both the 
offender and the offended more time to consider both the 
nature of the offense and the means of treatment. Coolness 
and consideration are always necessary to the ends of jus- 
tice, and to carrying out any reformatory measures. 

The last class of appeals to which attention will be called 
here, those looking directly towards the reformation of 
offenders, the protection of society, and the conservation 
and perpetuation of the best there is in government and 
people, may be classed under the following general heads, 
viz. : 

2. Punishments, direct and personal. 

These should conform both to the nature and enormity 
of the offense, and the objects to be attained by punish- 
ments. These objects are the chief considerations in all 
good government. They may include — 

(a) The protection to all good citizens, to which they are 
entitled. 

(b) The conservation of the best elements in society, 
and 

(c) The reformation of those elements, that for any 
cause, have become deranged. 



94 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

The last one of these objects is an important one, and is 
the prime object of all punishments. It also ranks high, 
since through reformation both protection and conservation 
are secured. Indeed the main purposes of punishments 
are merged in this one supreme object, viz., the reformation 
of offenders, since without such reformation, where offenses 
abound, no healthy government can exist. Hence, the 
safety and security of society, the vindication of authority 
and the conservation of all that is best in human nature, 
and in human compacts, are hereby most effectually met 
by the reformation of deranged elements. Its accomplish- 
ment is a guarantee for all others. 

Again : All punishments should, as far as possible, con- 
form to nature's laws : i. e., the offender should be met by 
the natural consequences of his offense, as in the case of 
trespass upon property, restitution should be made in kind 
and measure proportionate to nature and enormity of the 
offense, i. e.. he should not only restore that which he has 
destroyed, or appropriated ; but he should add something 
for the breach of trust, and the damage sustained to 
society at large. But in cases of personal injury, or injury 
to reputation and opportunity, it is not always convenient, 
right or possible to inflict a similar injury upon the 
offender, as " an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc., 
or to exchange a reputation for a reputation ; yet the law 
should exact an equivalent, either by depriving of personal 
liberty, or by the loss of property, the one to satisfy justice, 
the other to compensate, as far as possible, the injured party, 
and sometimes both should be exacted as a reformatory 
measure. 

But that part of government relating to the administra- 
tion of punishments may be treated under the following 
heads, viz. : 

(a) Reprimands, public or private, according to the 



INCENTIVES TO IN VOL UN TART OBEDIENCE. 95 

nature of the offense. If the particular violation is mainly 
against the peace and good order of the school, or the 
community of which the offender is a member, it may be 
best to vindicate the authority that has been abused, which 
is a common interest and inheritance, by a public punish- 
ment of the offender, keeping in mind, however, the 
main objects of punishment, as heretofore explained. But 
if the offense is a private one, one in which personal habits 
or private interests and character are alone or chiefly con- 
cerned, the punishment should be private, or alone between 
the offender and the party offended, or the representative 
of such party. 

The additional reasons for private punishment are, 1st: 
The offender is more susceptible to reformatory influences. 
He is more readily reached and subdued, since the sym- 
patny and support of wicked companions are removed and 
his pride or stubbornness is more readily subdued. 2d. 
He is also saved the disgrace and mortification of suffering 
in the presence of companions, which often hardens more 
than it chastens and subdues; and 3d, in cases where counsel 
and advice, and even sympathy, are necessary, as it cer- 
tainly will be in all cases, they are more easily given and 
more readily received . 

The danger to be avoided in reprimands, public or pri- 
vate, is a querulous, fault-finding spirit on the part of the 
teacher or parent, which often amounts to scolding, threat- 
ening or gratuitous and vindictive abuse of the offender. 
No teacher or parent has any moral or even legal right to 
take advantage of his position to vent his spite or anger 
upon a comparatively defenseless child . It is both cowardly 
and mean, and, hence, devoid of all reformatory influence. 
Many a spirited child has been driven into ways of wicked- 
ness by this abuse of authority on the part of the minister 
of justice (?) 



96 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

No indignities or insults, or base allusions to parent- 
age or position in life, should be offered childhood; and the 
appeals should be made, as in all other cases, to the higher 
moral motives first . To insult a man under any circum- 
stances, is mean and inexcusable; but to insult a child has 
a species of cowardly meanness about it which excels all 
ordinary offenses. 

(b) Corporal Punishment may be resorted to in cases 
of willful stubbornness, or of active rebellion, and in cases 
where the milder measures seem to fail. The infliction of 
bodily pain for purposes of reform, or as a check upon the- 
nrogressof social disorder, is justifiable; and when admin- 
istered in the proper spirit, it involves no indignity that 
may not itself be used as a moral reformer. It should 
never be used, therefore, while either party is under the 
influence of anger or any undue excitement, unless in case 
of assault or active rebellion. Both parties should be as 
calm and considerate as possible. Neither should corporal 
or any other punishment be administered from motives of 
malice, revenge or in a spirit of retaliation. The same spirit 
should prevail in the performance of this duty that should 
govern us in any other serious matter. The greater the 
wisdom and patience the greater the success. 

But many suppose that when the rod is invoked, reason 
and moral sense may be laid aside; and in the heat of pas- 
sion that often prevails, both the voice of conscience and 
of common sense are stifled. It is practically a vulgar 
fight, in which the stronger party wins, and is permitted 
to glut his vengeance upon a helpless child — shame ! This 
is fatal to all moral reform, and breeds either cringing 
cowardice, or a spirit of rebellion that sometimes takes 
vengeance upon the offending party after many days. 

There is no duty the teacher or parent will ever be 
called upon to perform, that demands greater care, wisdom, 



INCENTIVES TO INVOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE. 97 

patience and self-control, than the infliction of corporal 
punishment. Talk about moral suasion, there is as much 
moral suasion in a switch wisely wielded, as in any other 
mere means of correction, and much more than in the 
poisonous vituperations of an unruly tongue, even though 
the former may not be ts wisely wielded/' 

But the rod of correction should be used in the same 
spirit in which the skillful surgeon uses his knife in the 
amputation of a limb, or the removal of a tumor. The 
moral evils inflicted by the indiscriminate and promiscuous 
use of the rod, are greater by far than in a similar use of 
the surgeon's knife. The one may destroy animal tissue 
and human life, the other the moral sentiments and human 
character. The greatest consideration, candor and sym- 
pathy, as to time, place, amount and manner, in the use 
of the rod, must be exercised in order to make it effective 
as a moral reformer, and to guard it against abi se, or else 
let it be abandoned altogether. 

There are other forms of corporal punishment that are 
resorted to by some who are anxious to escape the supposed 
odium of the use of the rod, that are far more objection- 
able . Some of these are full of indignity and others are 
both cruel and dangerous. They should all be avoided. 
Their moral influences are without merit ; and some are 
absolutely hurtful both to mind and body. 

Again, the infliction of pain as a means of moral reform 
can not be consistently controverted. It is nature's method, 
and is very ancient. It is simply following out the law of 
consequences, or cause and effect. Suffering is nature's 
penalty for infraction of her laws, that she guards so jeal- 
ously. It is the result of disobedience everywhere, and 
its lessons are salutary, if heeded. 

Pain is a natural reformer: it is also a moral reformer; 
and there are cases of natural disorder and of moral cor- 



98 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

raption so deep seated and dangerous, that nothing but 
the surgeon's knife — to use a figure — can remove them. 
The suffering therefore must be accepted, both as a 
penalty for violated law, and as a means of cure and 
reformation. 

The infliction of pain as a means of moral reform and 
growth has the sanction not only of nature, but of custom 
and law. The whole scheme of government is based upon 
the theory of rewards for obedience, and punishments for 
disobedience ; and no amount of tinkering can ever change 
the fixed principles upon which the custom is founded. 
The different kinds of punishments must, therefore, be 
studied, and their peculiarities adjusted to the nature and 
demands of the disorders to be removed, and the growth 
required. 

The main objection to the use of the rod seems to be in 
the wrong spirit in which it is used ; and we might add in 
the excess, or the deficiency. It should always be thorough 
and as infrequent as possible ; but in cases of protracted 
and deep-seated evils, it may be continued at intervals 
from day to day, scientifically applied, not excessively, 
until the cure is effected. 

The last class of punishments appropriate to school life 
considered in this connection, may be stated as follows : 

(c.) Dismissals, including suspensions and expulsions. 
They are both doubtful as means of individual reformative 
measures, and should be resorted to only when the danger 
or damage incurred by continuing the offender in his 
connection with the school, is greater than the separation 
would prove to either the offender or the school. The 
individual or member should be sacrificed rather than that 
the whole body perish. And when the danger of the 
offender's doing more injury to the school or himself is 
greater than would probably result from his separation 



INCENTIVES TO INVOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE. 99 

from it, then the safety of the community or the school 
and tne sanctity of the law, all demand that the offending 
portion of said community be removed, on the same prin- 
ciple that a cancer or a gangrened limb should be removed, 
iu order to preserve the body, and restore wonted sound- 
ness. 

As for the reformation of the offender, in this case, the 
chances are not great ; but no less perphaps than would 
exist were he left in undisturbed possession of his place and 
opportunities ; but greater perhaps in suspension than in 
expulsion, since the opportunity to return is held out in 
the former, and denied in the latter. The return, of 
course, is dependent upon, at least, a promise of reforma- 
tion. It amounts to a simple trial, in which the offender 
is put upon his good behavior for a time. But expulsion 
is considered final separation without a hope of return. 
The chances for reformation in such case are very much 
diminished. In some cases, however, the shock has been 
so great as to awaken manhood, and to start the offender 
on a career of reformation; but the general tendency is to 
drive him farther and farther from such a course. 

The foregoing embody the main appeals that may be 
used for preserving order, and for reforming offenders. 
They may all be- regarded as strictly moral if properly ap- 
plied, i. e., their influence upon the mind and heart is such 
as to improve the morals, unless, indeed, they are per- 
verted and turned aside by awkwardness, or by w T rong ap- 
plication of some kind. 

There are other forms, of punishments and other incen- 
tives, perhaps, but they partake more or less of the fore- 
going lists. 

The moral effects of punishments must not be lost sight 
of, nor yet confounded w r ith merely vindictive measures. 
They should be simple aids to what are termed milder 



100 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

means, or those made use of for mere purposes of protec- 
tion and conservation. If punishments are used in con- 
nection with other rational means for correction, reproof 
and reformation, their salutary effects will be more than 
doubled. But if used as mere retaliation or even to 
satisfy the demands of a broken law (but more fre- 
quently to gratify ill temper), they are not only useless 
as moral means, but hurtful. Let them be wisely con- 
sidered. 

The following are a few conclusions drawn from the 
foregoing, and may be helpful to the student of morals, 
especially to teachers who have not had time to study the 
whole subject. 

1. Never give a command or make an order that will 
likely be disobeyed ; for the breaking of a law both weak- 
ens its force, and degrades the source of authority. 

2. Say as little as possible about some particular vices, 
for often they would never be thought of, were they not 
mentioned either to condemn or to prohibit. 

3. Let all orders be given in the form of requests ; for 
true politeness always wins respect, even against the will 
of an enemy. Every man can afford to be a gentleman. 

4. Do not make a code of rules prohibiting certain 
vices, and attaching penalties for infraction, for there is a 
tendency in human nature to venture on forbidden ground, 
to test and experiment with vice, and to resist that which 
hampers it. 

5. Treat every child as though he were honest, and 
pure, and good, until he proves himself otherwise, which 
is not likely to happen, unless his conditions are bad ; for 
children are apt to be what we take them to be, good or 
bad. 

6. Improve the surroundings of children as much as 



INCENTIVES TO INVOLUNTARY OBEDIENCE. 101 

possible ; for much of their early thought and act and 
habit arises from environment. 

?. Win the confidence, respect, esteem and love of every 
child, if possible (and it is); for love wins where everything 
else fails ; and instruction, however excellent, fails to find 
a healthy lodgment in a mind filled with hate, or closed to 
the impulses of kindness. 

8. Do not openly suspect evil when good is possible ; 
and then be slow to believe evil reports, or any evidences 
of evil. Look for good and it will come ; search for evil, 
and it will be found — sometimes where least expected. 

9. Always appeal to the higher motives first, and resort 
to punishments only when other appeals to moral sense 
have all failed. 

10. .Never punish in anger ; for he who loses his tem- 
per, loses his moral force, and must needs re-inforce him- 
self with doubtful expedients in order to win. It is base 
and cowardly to inflict pain to gratify resentment or to 
intimidate the weak. v 

11. Always have some employment planned to keep 
children busy — the pleasanter the better — for while "an 
empty head is the devil's workshop, idle brains and idle 
fingers are the tools he works with. 

12. Cultivate the virtues, and the vices will die for 
want of nourishment. Fight them with hatred or malice, 
and they will grow from affinity to native forces. 

13. Say but little, and let example tell the whole story 
of moral instruction ; for example is stronger than pre- 
cept, and the force of instruction is improved by loving 
works. 

Hence little is said in the following pages concerning 
morals or immorals, directly or indirectly, outside the 
ordinary instruction and teaching; or about the vices and 
extravagances of human life and weakness, believing the 



102 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

human mind can best be disposed to virtue by employing 
all its energies in the pursuit of good, and in the presen- 
tation and investigation of the truths of science and liter- 
ature, the study of noble lives and labors, and in the doing 
of those things that go to make up the great book of 
human life. 

Hence again, in the teaching of the sciences themselves, 
and in those intimate relations begotten between teacher 
and pupil while in the pursuit of a common object, and 
the enthusiasm arising therefrom, we shall seek for those 
strong and enduring moral forces that must elevate the, 
human mind and heart. 

To aid in the further study of the foregoing topics, or 
those treated in the last two chapters, we present a brief 
outline or analysis of the incentives to obedience. These 
may be taken up by the school, seriatim, and discussed by 
teacher and pupils, allowing the full play of thought and 
deduction to both. 

The chief business of a book of instruction is not to do 
the thinking for the pupils, but to set them thinking for 
themselves. Original thoughts are always better for edu- 
cational purposes than borrowed ones, even though they 
may not be quite so complete. 



INCENTIVES TO OBEDIENCE. 



1013 






and Impulses. 



Appeals to Social 
Feelings and Im- 
pulses 



f 1. A disposition in children to please par- 
ents, teachers, etc. 

f ADneals to purely I ^. A willingness to sacrifice self-interest for 
„ ,. „ ,. public good. 

Domestic Feelings H s 

J 3. A desire to do good to all mankind. 

4. A willingness to suffer for the good of 
enemies. 

5. A desire to do right for right's sake. 

[ Note.— While these reach out to the world, 
they ah have their origin in the home. 

1. A desire for happiness through inter- 
course and affection. 

2. A desire for uaterial advantages, gains, 
etc. 

-{ 3. A desire for mutual improvement, re- 
finement, culture, etc. 

4. A desire for place and standing, useful- 
ness. 

5. A desire for mutual gains, possessions, 

etc. 

r 1. Self-respect, manly dignity, regard for 
character. 

2. Respect for others; the good opinion of 
others . 

Appeals to Self-love 3 - Am ^ t ™ rivalry in claSS ' grade ° r 
*• —Personal Pride. \ 

! 4. A love of approbation or praise in school; 
in society. 

5. The use and abuse of percentages and 
monthly reports, etc . 

{ 6. Rewards of merit and prizes . 

r Natural rights and privileges. 

Denials and Re- Acquired rights and privileges. 

straints j 

Confinement. 

I Separation. 

' Reprimands, private and public. 
Corporal pnnishments. 
Direct Punishments j Suspensions. 

t Expulsions, etc. 



Note.— Let the list be extended by the learner. 



104 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 



CHAPTEE X. 

The Value of Science, Art, Literature and 

Learning, as Instruments of Kefine- 

ment and moral power. 

This subject has already been alluded to under " The 
Genesis and Classification of Sciences," Chapter II, r.nd 
it only remains now to state a few propositions in sup- 
port of the theories there advanced, and to point out 
some other relations in the order and manner in which 
these sciences may be used. The value of methods will 
be reserved for another chapter. 

Proposition I. — In science itself, ex a body of truth, 
there resides a refining and elevating power, which beyond 
doubt or question., is intended for the moral as well as 
intellectual elevation of man. 

But we are met with this objection at the outset of 
this argument, namely, that neither individuals nor nations 
renowned for scientific research and intellectual refinement, 
have always excelled in moral elevation, and that morals 
have not uniformly kept pace with learning. This, doubt 
less, is true, but not to the extent claimed by some ; and 
in all instances where the discrepancies between intel- 
lectual refinement and moral culture are great, they may 
be accounted for on the ground of derangement instead 
of harmony in the systems of instruction, and consequently 
in minds and in morals. Nothing different or better could 
be expected in accordance with the existing laws of cause 
and effect. Indeed, the greater wonder is that man has 
escaped as untarnished as he is. Imperfection or want 
of harmony and adaptation in the machinery — to use a 
figure — must produce imperfection in the product or 
result, however good and pure the raw material may be. 



THE VALUE OF SCIENCE. 105 

As far as ancient nations are concerned, the sciences 
themselves, many of them, and of the most important 
ones, too, were as yet imperfectly known ; and those well 
known were pushed both in improper directions, and to 
an unwonted extent, as pure science, while their just 
applications to human needs, or as aids to man's moral 
elevation, either as supplying his common wants or higher 
culture, were neglected entirely ; instance the science of 
astronomy as imperfectly known, and chemistry, geogra- 
phy and geology, botany, natural philosophy and the 
more useful laws of mechanics ; and as sciences and arts 
comparatively useless, instance geometry as then known, 
and the art of embalming, etc. ; and of misdirected sciences, 
as in architecture, sculpture, the one devoted to the erec- 
tion of monstrous pyramids, the other to colossal images 
instead of railways and bridge building, and the more use- 
ful arts of agriculture and manufactures, etc. 

Man, therefore, in his moral nature suffered, because 
of the neglect, or the perversion of his better nature, and 
that too, just in the ratio of his departure from the true 
purposes of knowledge ; while, under the more rational 
applications of modern science and art, witness the many 
improvements in modes of living, the important discover- 
ies and useful inventions of modern times compared with 
the boasted arts of the ancients. 

And the individual discrepancies may be accounted for 
in a similar manner. Men's physical and intellectual 
natures were developed in a disproportionate way, as com- 
pared with his moral nature, hence* the latter suffered in 
a corresponding degree. But this must not be attributed 
to the sciences themselves or to great learning, but to their 
improper use, from which use the nations, in this age, have 
hardly yet escaped. Nothing better can be expected where 
science is pursued for so unworthy purposes, even at the 



106 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCLENCE. 

present time. The purposes were not only misjudged, 
bat misused. 

To illustrate: (1) Great virtue may reside in medicine, 
rightly compounded and skillfully used; but, wrongly com- 
pounded and unskillf ully applied, it becomes a curse instead 
of a blessing. (2) That great nourishment may reside in 
food, but that it may not only be lost, but rendered pois- 
onous by improper preparations, or by injudicious eating; 
yet no one would condemn the medicine or eschew the 
food, because of wanton abuse. (3) Great fertility may 
reside in the soil ; yet ignorance of this property, or want 
of skill to cultivate it to produce crops, must not be taken 
as evidence of utter poverty. 

It is precisely so in the acquisition of useful knowledge. 
It may serve a grand and noble purpose, or it may prove a 
source of moral corruption and degeneracy. But the integ- 
rity of the proposition is still maintained, since we know 
that the legitimate use of knowledge, and the uniform 
tendency of science and learning, rightly applied, are to 
elevate the mind and body alike, and hence the moral 
nature, else why pursue these sciences at all ? 

Proposition II. — The functions of the mind are to 
think, to feel, to will, through its faculties. These are so 
balanced in man's normal state, that they mutually aid 
one another in all the departments of thinking, feeling and 
willing. 

This scarcely needs a proposition, and certainly no 
demonstration, to make it apparent, since common experi- 
ence and all processes of thinking attest its truthful-* 
ness. It is about equivalent to saying the function of the 
eye is to see, the ear to hear, or the wind to blow, the light 
to shine, etc. But this balance in the mind is, neverthe- 
less, overlooked in our courses of study; and hence we 
realize but a partial result in the education of the child. 



THE VALUE OF SCIENCE. 107 

Proposition III. — Through functional activity the 
mind grows and acquires its greatest strength and purity. 

This also is a generally accepted truth. Whatever exer- 
cises in a lawful way, strengthens and improves. This is 
a law of growth. But the question might arise, does it 
grow in all proper directions, unless special pains are taken 
in these several directions? We reply: 

Proposition IV. — That the sciences themselves and 
the problems of life to which they all apply, furnish the 
subjects of thought and activity of body and mind in the 
proper degree and quality. The proper adjustment of 
these problems, with due opportunities, furnish man with 
the best conditions for his education. 

Proposition V. — The higher, purer, and the more 
practical these problems to which the sciences apply, the 
more exalted, pure and practical become the mind and 
body of man. These sciences and problems of life are set 
for man's exaltation; and to attempt to exalt one part of 
man, to the neglect or at the expense of another, injures 
the whole man. Hence, to bring him to his best estate is 
to educate him as a unit, in unity; and exercise educates. 

Proposition VI. — Whatever improves the mind intel- 
lectually in the highest degree healthily, also improves it 
morally in the same manner and degree. The connec- 
tions are so close and inseparable in their natural relations, 
that the moral and intellectual powers grow as it were 
from sympathy with each other. The one can not grow 
lawfully, and to its best estate, without calling forth cor- 
responding growth in the other; otherwise man becomes 
a contradiction in himself, and his true education is 
thwarted. 

This may not be apparent until we take into considera- 
tion the kind or quality of the growth or improvement. 
The mind is created with susceptibilities and capacities. 



108 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

These are capable of receiving certain impressions, and of 
acquiring certain growth and enlargement. These again 
become, as it were, secondary or acquired faculties, inter- 
changeable in their relations. The mind thinks, feels and 
wills as a whole, not as parts. It is a unit making use of 
these faculties or powers, as the organist makes use of the 
several keys and stops, in order to produce harmony. 
A discord in one sets all ajar; while the harmony of 
the whole depends upon the strength and purity of each 
individual tone. 

The three grand faculties of the mind, as a thinking, 
feeling and willing agent, must all be put in motion at the 
same time, but not necessarily in the same degree. Owing 
to the character of the united movement, sometimes 
thought, sometimes feeling or emotion, and sometimes 
volition prevails in force or activity. This produces the 
harmony required, with characteristic predominance of 
quality, both unity and variety, all of which produces the 
required growth. 

These faculties and their appropriate functions exist 
as interdependent; and any derangement or lack of har- 
monious accord in the one is readily transmitted to all the 
others. Right education, which is the result of legitimate 
exercise of these powers, gives greatest tone and most per- 
fect harmony to the whole. It may also restore lost 
harmony and power, since the growth of these powers may 
throw off temporary derangement, and develop strength. 
The moral powers therefore grow correspondingly, since 
they sympathize with the intellectual and physical, at 
every stage of growth. 

Proposition VII. — Science or knowledge is that upon 
which the powers of the mind are legitimately exercised. 
It has all the elements of refinement and growth in its 
several departments; therefore, science in its broadest 



THE VALUE OF SCIENCE. 109 

sense, and art, literature and learning stand as the great 
instruments of culture,, and for the elevation of mind and 
morals. The higher, therefore, the departments, the 
higher the mind ascends; and the broader the culture, 
the more unselfish the soul; and this process may go on 
until that broad charity which must eventually end all 
diiferences that now divide and distract mortals, shall 
cover all man's moral and spiritual defects with that great 
mantel of universal love. 

Proposition VIII. — Education, therefore, in its 
broadest sense, includes all growth both of soul and body, 
the development of power from the capacities resident in 
man. [See Moral Sense, Chap. I, p. 13.] 

This education must, therefore, necessarily reach man's 
moral nature, or it is defective in some of its phases, since 
this moral nature is an inseparable part of man, consid- 
ered physically, organically and historically. All instruc- 
tion and teaching, from the earliest period of man's growth 
until the latest, must conform to these laws of growth, 
or derangements of various kinds ensue at some or all 
these points of development. 

Proposition IX. — All instances of failure to develop 
man's moral nature in harmony with his intellectual and 
physical nature, in this large and liberal sense, can be 
accounted for on the principle of some departure from these 
laws of growth, at some point in his present or past history. 
And the departure from this true course, or the infringe- 
ment of the law in one department, involves all the others, 
directly or indirectly: and this is precisely the state in 
which we find man to day : i. e. Whatever weakness or 
derangement we find in him, and the consequent working 
out of evil of any kind, are all accounted for on the ground 
of disobedience to law; therefore, 

Proposition X. — Harmonize man's educational pro- 



110 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

cesses, conforming them strictly to law, and you counteract 
the evils from their sources, and secure the healthiest 
growth possible, in all his powers, intellectually, physi- 
cally, morally. This gives the healthiest and highest cul- 
ture possible to man in every relation in life, and is 
unparalleled in its moral force; i. e , 

Proposition XL — Liberalize education ; make it broad 
enough to cover man all over, soul and body; make it deep 
enough to reach the uttermost depths of his depravity and 
derangement, and high enough to invite his loftiest aspira- 
tions, and you harmonize all antagonisms, and exalt him 
to his highest station in life as a man. Leave out any 
element or force, and you cripple him, andheMAY become 
a monster that no merely moral or physical force can- 
grapple with successfully. His destiny must then be 
determined by forces beyond mere human control. Hence, 
in conclusion. 

Proposition XII. — This broad, true, thorough educa- 
tion, that implies all mental, moral, physical and spiritual 
growth, invokes all instruments of instruction and teaching 
(for teaching means more than mere instruction) all mental, 
moral and spiritual forces vouchsafed to man in his pres- 
ent state of existence. 

Man has always suffered in his three-fold nature, from 
the abuse of either one or two, or all three of these depart- 
ments of the great machinery of human life : At least this 
may be said of him as far back as we are acquainted with 
his history. And if w r e assume that his primal state was 
one of purity and perfection, and that he lost these by 
disobedience and sin, may we not assume with equal 
security, that this primal state, or its equivalent, may be 
restored by obedience and the helps vouchsafed man in 
his present state? Let us at least restore the original and 
intended order, as we understand it, in the working of this 



THE VALUE OF METHODS. Ill 

complex machinery man, and we shall introduce health and 
harmony in all his movements, and growth in all his lawful 
directions. This a matter of experience and history as 
well as of learning and philosophy. 



CHAPTER XI. 



The Value of Methods of Teaching as Instruments 
for Refining and Elevating Man. 

However much may be done in the way of moral 
culture, and moral elevation of man by scientific associa- 
tion, and the refinements growing out of knowledge and 
general culture, yet the strongest, safest and most econom- 
ical methods for teaching morals in the schools, or for 
developing and strengthening moral qualities and senti- 
ments in childhood and youth, in connection with the 
foregoing, are through the orderly and systematic teaching 
of the ordinary sciences, as we find them used in our best 
schools. It both saves much valuable time, and secures 
greater success. But why? The main reasons are the 
following: 

1. It is the spirit of the teacher that evokes those moral 
forces from the sciences, or brandies of study, and makes 
them effective in building substantial moral character in the 
pupil. Without this spirit of the teacher, it were impos- 
sible to reach the highest culture. Mr. Emerson must 
have had this truth in mind when he said: " The spirit 
only can teach. Not any profane man, not any sensual, 
not any liar, not any slave can teach: but only he can 
give who has; he only can create who is. The man on 
whom the soul descends, through whom the soul speaks, 
alone can teach. Courage, piety, love, wisdom can teach; 



112 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

and every man may open door to these angels, and they 
shall bring him the gift of tongues. But the man who 
aims to speak as books enable, as synods use, as fashion 
guides, and as interest commands, babbles. Let him 
hush." 

Here we have the spirit of true teaching. It is no 
uncommon occurrence, in the experience of the learner, 
to be suddenly awakened to some remarkable facts, or 
extraordinary beauties in learning by the apt illustrations, 
or the great earnestness of the teacher while under the 
rapt influence of the spirit of prophecy or teaching — for 
they are much the same . 

Aside from the constant companionship, and intimate 
communion with pupils while dealing with the truths of 
science, and thus opening up to their expanding minds, 
the wonders that lie hidden in them, and in the refine- 
ments of learning, which are like the gentle dews and 
warm sunshine to the opening flowers; the very fact that 
the teacher can watch this growth, and direct it, and 
shape it into proper forms, are considerations of the first 
importance. And then again, the process of imparting 
truth, as we find it recorded in scientific knowledge, is in 
itself a moral force of no mean proportions. In fact it 
can be made one of the strongest in the whole category of 
moral influences. • 

But mark: these truths must be so imparted as to be 
understood and felt by the learner. They must address 
the understanding and sensibilities as ivell as the perception 
and memory, or like seed scattered upon the unprepared 
soil, they fail to germinate and grow. Their moral, and 
much of their intellectual force are lost if they fail to be 
thoroughly comprehended and felt. [See Apprehension 
and Comprehension, p. 115.] 

We venture the assertion — and it may appear a little 



THE VALUE OF METHODS. 113 

extravagant — that more deception, fraud, hypocrisy and 
absolute falsehood, distorted and inefficient thinking that 
breeds contempt for truth and authority, and indifference 
to the true, the beautiful and the good, are engendered in 
the minds of children by careless and inefficient teaching, 
superficial study and recitation than by any other influence 
that belongs to the mere school. Indeed the above faults 
constitute the main difference between good teaching, and 
that which distorts truth, belittles science and fills the 
world with inefficiency and fraud; and this applies to 
families and churches as well as to schools. In fact, it 
applies to teaching everywhere. 

2. There must be a clear and comprehensive understand- 
ing of the subject matter of the science taught, both by the 
teacher and pupil, and the teacher first, in order to derive 
all the moral forces from it. Often this moral force is 
crippled or killed by awkwardness and inefficiency. Is it 
any wonder then, that we have awkward and inefficient 
scholarship, and inefficient morals? They exist, too, in 
about the same degree. They have a common origin and 
a common end: And we may add, a common cure: for 
he who teaches science well, because of the necessary, and 
inherent moral force in the clear and thorough comprehen- 
sion of truth, teaches morals well. It feeds the moral 
nature as bread feeds the body. It revives the drooping 
plants of virtue, as sunlight and shower revive the face of 
nature. 

But mark: both the nature of the truth, and the force 
with which it is applied,. must be taken into the account. 
There are some truths that have comparatively slight bear- 
ing upon human conduct and life; and others , again, of 
startling importance. Those that relate to our intercourse 
with our fellow men, and to our spiritual growth and well- 
fare, are among the latter: and the force with which their 



114 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

obligations may be brought to bear upon the mind and 
heart of the learner, must be measured by their importance. 
An earnest belief in these truths by one's self, and a life 
conforming thereto, will add the greater force and value 
to them. 

To illustrate: The real nourishment of the plant may 
reside in the soil, and yet the plant may wither and die for 
the want of it. It needs the moisture to dissolve, and the 
sunlight to absorb, before healthy growth can go on. The 
one represents sympathy, the other love. They are living, 
moral forces in and of themselves. It is the giving out of 
these, through the channels of truth, that warms and vivi- 
fies the moral nature. The living presence and soul of 
the teacher, filled with a knowledge of the truth, are the 
awakening forces. 

The real nourishment of the soul may reside in the truth, 
undissolved (not understood in its special bearings), unpre- 
pared to give out its nourishment and strength, until dis- 
solved by the understanding and skill of the teacher 
through sympathy, and absorbed by the love of the truth, 
and deposited in the body, intellectual and moral, of the 
pupil, as the plant appropriates its nourishment. 

But many subjects of science are so superficially taught 
that both the moral and intellectual forces are lost ; and 
the losing of the one implies, at least, the impairing of 
the other. Undigested food is certain, not only to be lost, 
as a means of growth, but actually to impair and weaken 
the organism, infect its surroundings, and produce disease 
instead of growth ; so undigested knowledge, or that 
which is imperfectly understood, especially if left too long 
in that condition, is sure, not only to lose its vitalizing 
forces, its nourishment for building up sound moral char- 
acter, but is also liable continually to impair the mechan- 
ism of the mind, and to infect other contiguous knowledge. 



THE VALUE OF METHODS. 115 

The memory acts with the greatest vigor and tenacity 
upon those things that are well understood, since they 
make the deepest impression upon the mind ; and to 
remember well, in most cases, is only to have under- 
stood well. The office of memory, therefore, is at least 
twofold ; first, to receive and retain those things that are 
well understood, or, to receive them by understanding 
them ; arid, second, to hold in trust those things that are 
imperfectly understood, until the understanding has had 
time to master them thoroughly and the mind to absorb 
them ; but if still not understood, still undigested, unap- 
propriated, then they are removed, like other encum- 
brances, as useless matter ; they are forgotten, that room 
may exist for things that may receive better treatment from 
this digestive and assimilating apparatus — the memory, 
understanding and judgment. 

The difference between mere apprehension, as a mental 
act, and its more profound associate, comprehension, is 
simply this : the former merely sees a fact or principle 
more or less clearly ; while the latter understands it more 
or less perfectly. The one may glide into the other, the 
one is necessarily the complement of the other, in complete 
thinking. 

To illustrate further : the former merely seizes (appre- 
hends) the fact, or principle as the eagle seizes the prey, 
and conveys it to a convenient place of safety (the mem- 
ory); the latter, after seizing it, and transporting it to its 
convenient place, proceeds at once to devour it (compre- 
hends it), surrounds it, as it were, by himself, that it may 
enter into, and become a part of himself. So, the mind, 
when it thoroughly comprehends, not only receives and 
retains the impression, but proceeds to appropriate the 
facts and principles, making them a part of the intellect- 
ual furniture and moral power. 



116 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

Now, many pupils are satisfied with mere apprehension 
— seizing the prey — and holding it, as it were on the claw 
of memory, without appropriating it to its intended uses, 
until the impression decays or fades away, and the thing 
is forgotten. No nourishment is derived therefrom till 
the mind devours it, comprehends it, assimilates it ; and 
until it becomes a part of the intellectual and moral fibre. 

Hence, let these two mental operations, apprehension 
and comprehension, proceed in their logical order, and 
the intellect, sensibility and will shall all be strengthened 
thereby, and this harmony will produce the strongest and. 
safest moral growth ; "but the moral growth from mere ap- 
prension as an act, and mere memory as an act, can never 
be sound and healthy. 

3. All learning begets pleasure in proportion to the 
quality and guantity of the knoicledge acquired ; provided 
always the mind and body are in a healthy condition. The 
pleasure is also in the ratio of sound thinking and thorough 
comprehension ; since these operations produce growth in 
a legitimate way, for growth of this kind is always accom- 
panied by pleasure. Displeasure arises from derangement 
either in the faculties themselves, or in the conditions 
whereby action is induced ; sometimes in over-action — 
though seldom — but more frequently in want of action — 
from misdirected study, from want of understanding, and 
sometimes from a confusion of thought incident upon a 
wrong presentation of facts ; and again from a too great 
accumulation of facts without coherency. But it may 
always be assumed that sound study and sound acquisition 
go hand in hand, and are always sources of pleasure when 
rightly conducted. 

This fact has been questioned by some who have con- 
founded study or thinking with mere memorizing, or 
excessive apprehension without comprehension. This is 



THE VALUE OF METHODS. 117 

mere drudgery, both mental and physical, and the powers, 
without their proper stimuli, soon tire, and sometimes 
give out entirely. Sound thinking is always invigorating, 
since it involves the healthy activity and growth of the 
faculties . Hence all study and all acquisition that do not 
involve this harmonious and healthy activity, and conse- 
quent sound growth, may be set down as spurious, and it 
should be avoided. 

4. All true moral growth is accompanied by a pleasing 
elevation of thought andpurpose, even though accompanied by 
physical suffering; and it maybe assumed that, no pleasure, 
no growth or elevation. The pleasure may not be imme- 
diate, however ; neither is it always of an exhilarating 
character ; and sometimes the growth is the result of deep 
affliction and sorrow. But these are the sources of growth, 
and not the growth itself ; but the moral elevation is the 
same, and is sure to follow, and is sometimes of the 
purest and most exalted character. Virtue will prove its 
own reward, whether it require sacrifice and suffering, or 
prosperity and rejoicing. 

5. Growth and elevation in all departments of nature, 
are accompanied by a degree of pleasure, proportionate to 
the nature of the -object, and the kind of growth. Even 
vegetation shows signs of enjoyment, and even delight. 
All true groiuth is upivard and outward from a common 
center, where rest the life forces, and whence springs the 
pleasure. 

Witness the springing grass, the swelling bud and 
opening flower ; they seem to laugh with delight, as they 
lift themselves to the sunlight, and shed their sweet 
odors to the breeze. And the nodding grain and bending 
boughs lift their great glad burdens of wealth to man, 
with a pleasing joy. 

Much more, then, does animal life and growth give 



118 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

evidences of pleasure. Witness the joy and delight of 
the animal world, in its gambols over the meadows and 
through the vales, the merry song of birds, and the still 
more hilarious shout of childhood. And the higher we 
ascend in the scale of being, the greater the manifesta- 
tions of pleasure accompanying the growth. Hence, men- 
tal enjoyments are greater than the merely animal, and 
the moral more than the merely intellectual and physical. 
" All growth is upward/' and approximates the perfect in 
form, proportion, strength, utility and beauty. 

But some will doubtless remind us here, as in the cases. 
of deep affliction alluded to, that "There is no excellence 
without great labor/' True, bat does it follow that labor 
is not a pleasure ? On the contrary, it is one of the high- 
est enjoyments to all, except to the sick, feeble, or incor- 
rigibly lazy; and even to such it may become a remedy for 
the disease. 

Man was made to labor, intellectually, physically, mor- 
ally; and his highest happiness depends upon his following 
in the line of his appointed work. But we must distin- 
guish, as before hinted, between legitimate work for man 
and mere drudgery. And then there is a just balance to 
be observed between the merely physical labor and the 
purely mental and moral. If these distinctions are prop- 
erly observed, the pleasure is proportionately enhanced 
and the growth correspondingly great. 

But the true excellence spoken of in our maxim usually 
comes after the labor, and as a reward for labor ; and this 
comes also more surely as the result of growth. It is the 
ripening of the grain, the full fruitage preparatory to the 
harvest. It may be the ingathering after a life of toil 
and thought, the full exercise of all the united powers of 
body and mind. 

Many of us can testify that the pleasures of the pursuit 



THE VALUE OF METHODS. 119 

of knowledge are as great, if not greater, than the posses 
sion of it. The excellence and exalted pleasure of devel- 
oping power sometimes even exceeds the mere joy of pos- 
session. 

But human knowledge has not fulfilled its earthly mis- 
sion, and teaching or imparting it, its full cup of pleasure, 
until it is applied to its wonted uses, in the arts and indus- 
tries of the human family. This use is in perfect harmony 
with its mission as a refiner of the affections and senti- 
ments of the human heart. The one is utilitarian, the 
other aesthetic ; and for all human purposes the one is 
incomplete without the other. 

Man himself is elevated and refined even while intelli- 
gently supplying his own personal wants, since this also is 
more fully done by working for the good of others. This, 
too, is a law of nature that always compensates her intel- 
ligent laborers; and the chief reason that neither the 
purely utilitarian idea of knowledge, nor yet the purely 
aesthetic, accomplishes its entire mission in elevating man, 
is because these two uses have been hitherto so widely 
separated. 

But just how much of the utilitarian features of knowl- 
ldgecanbe illustrated and practiced in the schools depends 
upon the opportunities, and upon the wisdom and skill 
of the teacher. Most schools, however, are supplied with 
a sufficient amount of apparatus and other appliances, to 
show how knowledge of the physical sciences and many of 
the mechanic arts, may be applied to the industries of the 
age. But the main thing is the skill and tact of the 
teacher. These will do more than mere apparatus and 
laboratories, in supplying this need. If the teacher's heart 
is really imbued with a genuine, love for his work, his 
hand will soon acquire skill ; and if he have even an 
ordinary genius he will soon arouse a corresponding 



120 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

enthusiasm among his pupils. And this is the sum of all 
excellence in teaching, or in any work. He who believes 
in his work is most likely to succeed; and he who sets the 
world a-thinking is greater than a king: for mind once 
awakened, once disenthralled and put upon the highway of 
thought, is sure to throttle some ancient error or to develop 
some new truth, whereby the world is helped on in its 
moral and intellectual progress. 

Here is moral elevation that will last. It is a natural 
growth. It gives strength and durability. It stops not 
with mere precepts, creeds and catechisms, leaving the. 
heart and life untouched, unaltered, unimproved. It 
enters into the very feeling and fibre of human nature 
and human conduct, growing with their growth, broaden- 
ing, deepening, refining and sublimating them, instead of 
narrowing them down to the mere formulae of human 
doctrines. 



CHAPTEK XII. 

The Mokal Force of Industrial Education. 

But one of the most direct and practical ways in which 
to illustrate and enforce the uses of human knowledge as a 
means of moral elevation, and to conserve the wasting 
energies of human nature, and at the same time to acquire 
a practical acquaintance with the arts and common indus- 
tries, is through the "Manual Training Srfwols" that 
have recently grown up to meet this evident want in our 
present system of popular education. And although this 
feature has but recently been brought into prominence, 
and consequently has not yet had time to find its true form 
and place in our schools, it nevertheless has acquired such 



MORAL FORGE OF INB USTRIAL ED UCA TION. 121 

a firm hold upon the good sense of the people that we may 
safely predict that " it has come to stay," in some form. 

Its clear logical necessity, and its evident adaptability to 
the present condition of our industrial affairs, give clear 
and indubitable indications of final success : and I look 
upon it as a highly probable solution to the much vexed 
problem of labor and capital. Their true relations have 
never yet been practically and satisfactorily determined and 
maintained, probably never will be until we reorganize our 
entire system of popular education. They certainly never 
can be until we educate both on the same plane, and from the 
same basis of social standing, looking to the mutual bene- 
fits of each. Educate labor, and you not only make it 
more efficient, but more honorable. Neglect this, and you 
not only weaken and degrade it, but place it at such 
evident disadvantage that capital will impose upon it, 
making such demands upon it, that it cannot comply with, 
and live. Educate * capital, and you take away its arro-"~ 
gant and dishonest characteristics, and reveal to it its true 
mission, which is, as far as possible, to distribute labor and 
its just rewards, among the entire population, without 
regard to cast or any condition whatever, except as a 
matter of fitness and probable choice. 

Labor of different kinds, as has been shown, is a clear 
necessity, not only that one class of man's wants may be 
supplied, but that all may be better supplied, and not only 
that all these wants may be better supplied, but that man 
may grow into the very image and being of what he was 
intended to be in the first place ; and into that relation to 
environment, most favorable to growth and perfection. 



* What we mean by the word " Educate " in this connection is not mere 
enlightenment and enlargement of its scope, but the turning of it in its 
proper channels. 



122 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

These things he can not do without the exercise of all the 
native powers he possesses, physical and mental. 

The reasons for these conclusions are founded in the 
very nature of things. Man was evidently planned for 
labor with hand, head and heart. These representing his 
three distinct natures : and in this he most assuredly finds 
his highest development and greatest happiness. All 
conspire to this end . Labor is the grand conservator of 
all human energy and human progress. The neglect of it 
as certainly entails decrepitude and deterioration and final 
destruction, as obedience to the laws of labor produces- 
strength and refinement ; and these blessings or curses fall 
first upon those particular parts of man's nature neglected: 
i. e. physical neglect begets physical weakness, and intel- 
lectual neglect begets intellectual weakness and imbecility, 
and moral neglect, moral weakness and degeneracy; but the 
neglect and consequent degeneracy of any one reflects upon 
both the others, and aggravates all the evils of the whole. 

This is also a law of Nature; and she is ever jealous of 
the rights of her children, and of the good things they 
inherit at her hands. If they are abused, they are either 
taken from them or allowed to perish with them. She 
does her best to remove all obstructions from the path of 
progress. -If the hand or foot is injured slightly, for 
instance, she immediately sets about repairing the damage, 
if permanently, or if so confined as to prevent legitimate 
use, nature not only mercifully withholds nourishment 
from these parts, but does her best to remove the useless 
member, little by little, because it is in the way. She 
tolerates no nuisances, but encourages all useful growth. 
Her forces are all friendly, permanent and true to the 
best interests of the individual and the race. When either 
vegetable or animal matter has served its purposes, it 
decays and crumbles back to its original form or condi- 



MORAL FORCE OF IND US TRIAL ED UOA TION. 123 

tion, as food for the oncoming life of other growth. As 
soon as it ceases to work in its appointed way, it ceases 
to live and grow, and when it ceases to live and grow, it 
is kindly removed to another sphere of existence. 

The same is true of the human species in all relations 
of life. When man ceases to work, he ceases to be useful 
as a member of the body politic and social, and he at once 
commences a series of downward steps, that land him 
e'er long, at the bottom of the scale where his substance, 
if he have any, is absorbed by a new and better growth 
Nature, true to her best instincts, removes him as an 
incumbrance or common nuisance, that others may have 
his room and opportunities. The world is one vast cycle; 
but every movement is generated by force and governed 
by law, and the tendency is always to a higher and better 
life. But nothing is accomplished without labor, or pro- 
duced without an adequate force, or cause. 

The same law prevails in man's commercial relations, 
and in the accumulation of wealth. When he or his pos- 
terity ceases to use his accumulations, or when he com- 
mences to abuse them, they are generally removed. For- 
tunately for us, however, in this country, our laws of 
inheritance, or the descent of property from father to son, 
are such as to prevent large accumulations of property, to 
remain long in the same family, idle, where it naturally 
breeds laziness, vice and imbecility. But even these 
would soon remove it, for they open channels for its dis- 
integration, and absorption somewhere else. Large for- 
tunes are always detrimental to morals, not only because 
they afford so many avenues of indulgence, but because 
they relieve man from that active exertion, necessary to 
the proper developement, unless indeed, he is well forti- 
fied by moral character. 

It is, therefore, clear that man was made to labor in all 



124 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

those directions in which he should grow; and it is equally- 
clear that without this labor, this exertion, he can not 
grow into that harmonious, well-balanced being that 
nature designed he should be, and to which his necessities 
call him. The very fact that man is now, and perhaps 
always has been disposed to shirk duty, and thus escape 
his alloted work in the world, may acconnt largely, not 
only for his past degeneracy, but in large measure for his 
present dereliction to duty; and these, together with his 
ambition and natural cupidity, will account largely for 
the deranged state of affairs in respect to labor and capital, - 
and the like. And the only remedy at hand seems to be 
the restoration of these wonted relations, whereby man 
himself may be restored. In other words, we must edu- 
cate by labor as well as for labor, as a means of man's 
moral restoration. And for the upbuilding of a healthy 
social status. This is an important matter. 

When man learns, practically, that he can not thus 
shirk duty and live a healthy, happy and successful life; 
that labor develops, and that the development of any one 
department of his being requires a corresponding activity 
and development of every other part; and that to neglect 
one injures all the others, he will then have placed him- 
self, theoretically, at least, in a position to reap the bene- 
fits of an education in harmony with his present and pros- 
pective interest. 

The question now arises, is the present effort to establish 
"manual Training Schools," and other industrial features 
of education, in connection with our present system, a 
practical one? 

We have shown that this industrial feature is in har- 
mony with the law of man's nature and growth, aye, with 
his largest and best growth, soul and body: but is the 
present popular movement in this direction a practical 



MORAL FORCE OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 125 

one? One which with such changes from time to time as 
experience and wisdom may suggest, shall meet the grow- 
ing demands for a larger scope of education — one that 
shall better fit man for the constantly enlarged sphere in 
which he is destined to move? 

Without attempting a full discussion of these questions 
or of the main one — for we think the present awakening 
of the public mind and interest upon this subject is suffi- 
cient to warrant sound conclusions in the end, without 
such discussion here — we answer yes, the project is emi- 
nently practical with such modifications of our present 
system and practices, as they will most readily and profit- 
ably admit, and with such additional expenditure of money 
as shall provide the necessary improvements in our build- 
ings and other conveniences, to enable our people to carry 
on the experiment on a liberal scale. And this additional 
expenditure is also in harmony with our present progress 
in almost all other departments of labor. Witness the 
millions now expended in enterprises that only required 
thousands but a few years ago. And if these enterprises 
pay so liberally for the increased expenditure, why not try 
education on a larger scale? There is no other human 
interest that demands as much, or that promises larger 
returns, and I was about to add, there is no other in 
which men are so penurious. If education is the prin- 
cipal thing, then give it a fair chance. Let it be on a 
scale at least as liberal as any other, and as all others com- 
bined, and then we shall begin to realize liberal returns, 
for if the ends proposed by such a system are such as are 
claimed, and such as clearly appear, both from the nature 
of the improvement, and from the results already obtained 
from the limited experiments thus far, the merely 
increased expenditure will be as nothing in comparison. 



126 ELEMENTS OB 1 ETHICAL SCIEXCE. 

Some of the reasons for the introduction of this new 
feature into our present system may be stated as follows: 

1. Our present system, with all its excellencies, is not 
yet perfect, but, on the contrary, it is " behind the times," 
so to speak. By many it is claimed to be radically defect- 
ive and unsatisfactory in many of its features and results. 
It is not up with the demands of the age. It was good in 
its time, and has brought the people to the opening of a 
new era of improvements, demanding something more than 
it now offers. 

2. Our present system is not "ironclad." It is suscep- 
tible of improvements, such as are offered in the foregoing. 
As we now find it, it is the result of much thought, count- 
less experiments and many improvements, some of which 
were, at the time of their first introduction, considered 
unwise innovations, but which time has shown to be both 
wise and necessary. Others have been found unnecessary, 
and have disappeared altogether, as witness the efforts in 
ancient times to make certain languages the only means of 
communication, etc. . 

3. Because, true to the instincts and customs of prog- 
r ss, a remedy for many existing defects and shortcomings 
has been discovered, or rather, has grown up under the 
necessities thrust upon us, in the industrial features of 
education alluded to, and whose results, as already shown, 
by limited, yet somewhat liberal experience, have seemed 
to meet these defects in a manner clearly to indicate final 
success. 

Other reasons might be adduced ; but we think they 
will readily occur to the learner. It will be necessary here, 
however, to notice two leading points clearly, in order to 
avoid confusion and mistake. 

1. The kinds of work that can be most conveniently and 
profitably associated with our present system, courses of 



MORAL FORGE OF IND US TRIAL EI) JIG A TION. 127 

study and customs in the schools with such alterations as 
shall rather improve than impair them, must be care- 
fully considered. 

2. A clear understanding of the objects to be secured, 
and the real intent of what some are pleased to call 
"A modern innovation/' must be secured at all hazards. 

First, then, as to the hinds of labor best adapted to the 
present and prospective wants of our people or of any people. 
A slight difference, therefore, may be made to suit the 
varieties of nations and peoples. 

It will be seen, by reference to Chapter II, " The Gen- 
esis and Purposes of Kuowledge and Science," and the 
classifications following, that the departments of science 
there given, are admirably adapted to the development of 
corresponding mental and moral qualities and habits in 
human nature; and that these, again, readily adapt them- 
selves to the various degrees of advancement, and other 
peculiarities of the human mind. 

It will be found also, on comparison, that the several 
departments of the industries and arts, arising from man's 
necessities and from the pursuit of these several branches 
of science, that they are equally diversified, and well 
adapted to human needs at the present time, and that by 
a wise forecast, they may meet every emergency and every 
want in the line of popular industries, and at the same 
time serve as educators of the race. 

Now the school, if it really fulfills its mission, affords 
just opportunity for life preparation. Failing to do this, 
it fails in its main object. The work of the school-room, 
under these just opportunities, should be such as to best 
prepare for this life work. This is but imperfectly done 
under present circumstances and opportunities, owing to 
the largely theoretical character of the instruction in these 
schools and colleges. 



128 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

True, this instruction has answered the purposes thus 
far, by its constantly improving character, bringing, so far 
as the schools have been efficient, the race up to a fair 
degree of development, on the part of many. But this 
constantly improving condition of the people demands 
correspondingly improved opportunities and processes, that 
the people, in the present and in the future also may be 
accommodated in their demands. 

Now the continual complaint coming up from the peo- 
ple, on a survey of the ranks of school life, are that this 
life preparation is but meagre and impractical, under 
our present system; and that pupils are obliged not only 
to learn a business after leaving school, but, in many 
instances, to learn their school lessons over again, in order 
to make them serviceable in their business; i. e., the prac- 
tical application of them to their work. These are evi- 
dences of defects and weaknesses somewhere in their line 
of learning. And while it is sometimes true that these com- 
plaints are ill-founded, and not to be taken as indications 
of real distress, or of defect, yet the circumstances, and 
the well-attested facts in these complaints, are of suffi- 
cient importance to warrant a suspicion, and to justify an 
examination into them. 

The kinds of labor, therefore, should be such as to 
meet, as far as possible, the present and prospective wants 
of the pupil, not necessarily in the way of a trade, profes- 
sion or employment, to be sure, but such as shall best fit 
him for entering upon any trade or profession or employ- 
ment that may with care and judgment be selected for 
life. Some of this special work in the way of applications 
of learning to life duties, may be named here, as merely 
illustrative, but not necessarily exhaustive nor in the order 
in which they should be taught. 

1. The training of the eye and the hand in their 



MORAL FORCE OF IND USTRIAL ED UCA TION. 129 

mutual relations and adaptedness, as in moulding, draw- 
ing, drafting, carving in wood, metals, etc. 

2. Exercises in those employments that look more to 
the useful trades and mechanic arts, as sawing, boring, 
planing, morticing, matching, cutting, nailing, etc. 

3. Those relating to textile fabrics, as the manufacture 
or mending of clothing, cutting, fitting, sewing, cleaning, 
ironing, pressing, etc. 

4. Those relating to the preparation and cooking of 
foods, as dressing, mixing, baking, boiling, roasting, fry- 
ing, broiling, etc. 

5. Those that relate to agriculture and gardening, 
where grounds and other conveniences may be had for 
illustrations or otherwise, as the preparation of soils, 
planting and raising grains, grasses, fruits, flowers, trees, 
garden plants, etc. 

6. The rearing of stock, as sheep, cattle, horses, mules, 
pigs and poultry, etc. 

7. Those employments relating to lands and tenements, 
as surveying, plotting, building, railroading, etc. 

8. Manufacturing in wood, as furniture; in iron, as 
farm and household utensils; in brass, as machinery, 
ornamentation, etc.; in silver and gold, the same; in 
leather, as shoes, harness, etc . 

9. Commerce and the professions might also receive 
attention if opportunity and necessity required. 

And so every industry might receive such attention as 
shall constitute a preparation for entering upon any 
department thereof, where taste, interest or inclination 
may lead; and no arbitrary distinctions should be made 
in favor of, or in disfavor of, any employment for women; 
believing their good sense of the fitness of things will 
always lead them to choose employments in which they 



130 ELEMENTS OE ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

can at least succeed, if not excel. The whole field of 
employments should be. open to all alike. 

Second : as to the objects and intent of the work. Much 
misapprehension, and consequently much irrelevant talk 
and writing, have been expended on this part of our sub- 
ject. Some maintain that the main object and intention 
of the industrial school are to enable the pupil to learn a 
trade, and to graduate as an expert in some art or profes- 
sion ; some maintain that the object is to make money to 
enable the pupil to defray his expenses while attending 
school ; others, again, maintain that the only object is to 
develop muscle, and to maintain good physical health, etc. 

Now, while all these objects may be secured to a limited 
extent, and this, too, as a natural result of right methods 
and of obedience to law ; yet they are not the main objects 
to be attained, nor the main intentions of the industrial 
school. But the main objects are the intellectual, moral 
and physical development of the pupil, in harmony with the 
laws of sound growth, which thing can not be done to the 
full extent, or even to a safe extent, without scientific 
attention to these same laws of health and growth. These 
laws demand a reasonable share of physical labor during 
the periods of study and school training : And to say that 
this demand is satisfied outside of school life is simply 
saying what has never yet been done in one case in five 
hundred, and probably never will be done until intelligent 
provisions are made for this work in the schools them- 
selves. And we have already shown that physical health 
and growth, as well as moral and intellectual well-being, 
all depend upon a united, harmonious and simultaneous 
action of all the faculties of the human being; and at a 
period or periods in the life of the child when his health 
is in the most delicate condition, and when his habits and 
character are forming. 



. MORAL FORCE OF IND US TRIAL ED UCA TION. 131 

This is the most critical time in all the life of the stu- 
dent ; hence it should be subjected to the most careful 
surveillance and the most rigid discipline. A false step 
here, a little neglect, a wrong combination of forces, will 
as surely tell in the general make-up of character, as mis- 
takes anywhere in the complications and combinations of 
forces. 

To illustrate by the use of a common figure : All the 
parts of a machine must move in harmony, under a full 
head of power, in order that it may do the best work, may 
endure the heaviest strain and last the longest. So in this 
complex machine we call man : in order that the best 
results may be obtained, the heaviest strain endured, and 
the greatest longevity attained, each part must move in 
harmony with every other part. And this does not pre- 
clude intervals of rest, change and recreation. These also 
are necessary, and are subject to law. . They may become 
n blessing or a curse. They are parts, and necessary parts, 
of these educational forces. But the working forces are 
the main ones, and the others are mere fertilizers. And 
the increased health and vigor, the sharpening up, as it 
were, of all the physical, intellectual and moral appetites 
and powers, by this mutual interchange of life forces, 
begotten of obedience to law, will be such as to more than 
compensate for the supposed loss of time, either from 
work or play, which time, under other circumstances, is 
often spent in absolute idleness, or in dawdling with les- 
sons that have become a mental drudgery, irksome and 
tasteless, and correspondingly useless as moral or intellec- 
tual food or inspiration to thought ; and all because of 
these violations of the laws of growth. 

When man shall have learned how to work — to work 
advantageously, intellectually, physically, morally, his 
proper education will have begun; and when this becomes 



132 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

a fixed habit — a law governing all his conduct — that edu- 
cation will be assured. It will be, not only a matter of 
pleasure, but one of absolute certainty; for there is just 
work enough in the world, and of the proper kind, too, 
to educate every man, woman and child in it, this being 
the evident intention of work. Beyond this, and less 
than this, work becomes odious, disproportionate, dis- 
reputable and a drudgery. Under the inspiration of work, 
associated with thought, both are exalted, and man's 
environment will improve in the same ratio of his faculties; 
whereby both man and his environment, or the whole 
face of nature, animate and inanimate, shall be continually 
approximating that state of absolute perfection mentioned 
in Chapter I, Proposition VII and Corollaries 3 and 4, 
also Proposition VIII and Corollaries. 

Education hy work is the true doctrine. . . Hence the 
intention of industrial education is not that labor shall 
usurp learning; but that it shall aid it; that it shall not 
degrade it, but exalt it, even to its own intelligent exalta- 
tion. In short, that the highest intellectual and moral 
development can be reached only through so much 
plrysical labor as shall give the soundest bodily health, 
and the safest industrial habits. 

Experience has also demonstrated, according to papers 
and reports from the manual training schools, already 
established in this country and in Europe, which represent, 
for the most part, only a few forms of general industry, 
that the purely intellectual education of the pupil is 
promoted every way by judicious exercise of the physical 
powers, in a scientific way, while pursuing the ordinary 
course of study. And why should it not be so promoted? 
It is not necessary that the physical energies of the young 
should be either weakened or wasted in inanity, or dissi- 
pated in debauchery, while pursuing a course of study. 



MORAL FOR CE OF IND US TRIAL ED UCA TION. 133 

This increase of power, where studies are associated with 
manual labor, is the natural result of obedience to the 
laws governing all growth; while the neglect of such 
exercise is disobedience; and each has its reward, the one 
in lawful growth, the other in suffering, to say nothing 
about the entailed inferiority, and ultimate death of 
faculties. 

These reports tell us, also, that the pupils, where tests 
have been fairly made, not only keep up with their com- 
panions — those who do not work in the shops or elsewhere 
— in the class work, but often excel them; while, in addi- 
tion, they escape the many temptations to idleness and 
dissipation so common in schools where all the time is not 
farmed out to useful employments and recreations of some 
kind. 

Now, the moral effects of manual labor associated with 
study must be apparent to all. If there were no other 
benefits arising from physical culture, as developed in 
the manual training schools, or from the introduction of 
the industrial features of education in all our schools, 
from the kindergarten to the high school and college, than 
the mere acquisition of manual skill, it would be a valid 
argument in its favor. But when we consider that it not 
only utilizes physical energies in the production of useful 
labor and skill, but it cuts off a large share of that mis- 
chief, to counteract which constitutes a still larger share 
of the drudgery of modern teaching, and also establishes 
habits of industry and sobriety, it would seem that no 
further argument were necessary to bring about this much 
needed reform. 

And then again: much of the dissipation and crime in 
society at large results directly or indirectly from a want 
of power or habit among young people to employ their 
time and energies pleasantly and profitably, after leaving 



134 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE, 

school. They either fall into ways of idleness and dissi- 
pation, because they find most places of profitable employ- 
ment closed against them; or else they are obliged to 
commence a course of preparation for business after leav- 
ing school. Both of these alternatives are discouraging. 
The industrial schools would remedy these defects. 

But when we add to all these moral and intellectual 
advantages of a philosophical and profitable system of 
physical training of this sort, the fact that man's avail- 
able capital as a factor in society is increased from 50 to 
100 per cent, or more, by thus developing all his available 
power in the right direction, and that the public weal is 
thereby improved correspondingly, there would again 
seem to be no doubt of the propriety of such measures, 
even at a largely increased expenditure of money for pub- 
lic education. It would simply be rendering more avail- 
able and profitable the present expenditure, to say noth- 
ing of the immense moral advantages accruing. In fact, 
the industrial feature of education seems to be the "miss- 
ing link" in man's moral and intellectual education and 
elevation. Restore this "missing link," and we not only 
solve the whole intellectual problem, but many other 
social and political issues which now seem hopelessly 
stranded upon the shoals and rocks of our civil polity. 
Among these could be named the capital and labor issue, 
our whole revenue system, which, together with our polit- 
ical and commercial dishonesty, seem to pile up barriers 
to our national prosperity enough to appall any one. 

And }'et all these can be removed — removed peacefully 
and effectually. Educate man all over — hand, head and 
heart — and the thing is done. Does that seem too simple 
a solution? Try it. It will cost something, to be sure; 
but the expense will not be a tithe of that bitter loss 



MORAL FORGE OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 135 

incurred from blindness to this solution and neglect of 
these simple claims of justice. 

"Educate man all over/' and no part will go to Avaste — 
no part will be disposed to prey upon any other, personal 
or political. "We simply restore the lost balance, and man 
is reconciled in himself and to himself as a unit of power; 
and society, being composed of these units, is itself also 
reconciled in its various social and political interests, and 
built into a stronger and more enduring superstructure. 

But some will tell i^s, this is impossible. Man will not 
work with his hands so long as he can make a living by 
his wits; and that others are improvident and lazy, con- 
stantly disposed to shirk duty, and ail that. This may all 
be true; and some one has wittily remarked, that "man 
is naturally a lazy animal." But this is a mistake — a 
slander not only upon man, but upon his maker. The God 
of nature never made a mistake, and a lazy man is a woeful 
blunder; therefore, he never made a lazy man, nor a lazy 
animal of any kind. All the lower animals, as we call 
them, work in their appointed sphere, and to an extent 
commensurate to their natural wants, and, therefore, are 
not naturally lazy. They may have contracted some of 
man's lazy habits, and this, too, by his unwarrantable 
interference with the laws of production and heredity. All 
this may be true, I say. 

But some men are lazy. This we can not deny, and we 
can account for this only on the supposition of violation 
of law, somewhere in his past or present history. Lazi- 
ness may also be inherited; and the disease, in some cases, 
we know is chronic. We know, also, that when habit is of 
long standing, it may be transmitted from generation to 
generation; and this will account for man's laziness, and 
for the same trait in other animals, just as we know other 
diseases may be transmitted. But nature, which always 



136 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

produces the best she can under the circumstances — often 
mending man's mistakes, where she is properly encouraged — 
must not be charged with such a monstrosity as aiding in 
making a lazy man or woman. 

But laziness, like most other diseases, may be corrected 
and cured. I suppose it is safe to say that all diseases 
have their remedies somewhere within the range of possi- 
ble discovery. Laziness certainly has; for the trial of cure 
has frequently been made, and succeeded. As well may 
we say that man is weak, and therefore can not be made 
strong; because he is sick, he can not be made well; because 
he is ignorant, he can never be made wise, as to say because 
he is lazy he can not be cured. The simple remedy lies in 
his training, in his education by work, education to work, 
and education for work; and this continued from gener- 
ation to generation will work the soundest cure m the 
worst cases. 

Everybody, therefore, must labor with hand, head and 
heart, as a means of education, until industrious habits 
and inclinations shall have become fixed. This shall act 
both as prevention and cure of laziness, and other bad 
habits. And there is no other cure. The law is inexorable. 
Obedience to its mandates will restore, in time, that which 
has been lost by disobedience. Let the experiment be 
made on a scale ample enough to meet the demands of the 
case, and improvement will be certain. Let work become 
a necessary, an indispensable part of man's education, and 
the cure is certain. 

In order, therefore, to promote morality among men, 
this constitutional balance among all the faculties must be 
restored, and that balance maintained through life as 
nearly as circumstances will permit; for morality is noth- 
ing more nor less than the normal activity of man's native 
faculties. 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 137 

Is this impossible? Then education is impossible, im- 
provement impossible, and man a practical failure; a con- 
clusion which no one in his wits is willing to grant. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Human - Obligations and Duties. 

The foregoing statements show clearly, not only the 
nature and extent of man's true growth and probable des- 
tiny, but the necessity for a thorough revision of popular 
ideas and systems of education, basing them upon natural 
law as revealed in man's faculties; and enforcing strict 
obedience to these laws of learning and growth. And all 
this, in turn, demands obligations and duties covering a 
larger area than is usually assigned under our present 
system. 

These arise from a just consideration of the conditions 
and responsibilities involed in the foregoing. And they 
may be regarded as the final issues in a work on morals: 
i. e. y the success of the system depends upon the enforce- 
ment of these laws respecting man's growth. They are 
fundamental as they relate to this subject, and give direc- 
tion and stability and point to all the principles and 
maxims that have been developed in the preceding dis- 
cussions. 

These obligations and duties may be regarded as the 
summing up of all the relations and responsibilities of life. 
They cover all the ground out of which grow moral rela- 
tions and moral acts, constituting a system of training 
that, at least, approximates perfection. 

The exercise of the faculties of man in the discharge of 
these obligations and duties constitutes the functional, the 



138 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

vital part of this system. The methods are the machinery 
by which the system is worked. 

These duties and obligations may be classified under the 
following heads, as also shown in the summary at the close 
of this volume. 

I. Domestic Obligations and Duties. 

II. Social and Commercial Obligations and 
Duties. 

III. Civil and Political Obligations and Duties. 
These cover about all the moral relations among men. 

Each class will claim the prominence of a separate chap- 
ter; and each should be carefully studied, expanded, if 
need be, and studiously applied in the moral training of 
children and youth; for, while many of these obligations 
and duties relate to adults, they nevertheless have their 
incipiency in childhood and youth. The last two chapters, 
especially, have reference to conduct among adults. The 
entire list may be studied in the following order: 

I. The Domestic Obligations and Duties arising 
from them. These, as the name implies, relate to the 
home — the natural nurse of the virtues — and its immedi- 
ate surroundings. 

1. The Home or the Family is the Foundation of our 
social order. Mark "The Foundation " and not the super- 
structure of social order itself; but that upon which the social 
order is built, as the house is built upon its foundation. If, 
therefore, the foundation is broad, and firm, the house is 
comparatively commodious and safe. Or, to use a little 
different figure, the home and its influences are the soil 
or seed bed, out of which grow all those plants of virtue 
or vice, which go to make up the great harvest of human 
life. The home is also the source of nearly all those 
social and incipient political relations that constitute the 
bond of human brotherhood, industrial enterprises, and 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 139 

human governments; and the influences surrounding this 
home are the sunshine or the shadows, that nourish and 
invigorate, or the frosts and mildew that blast and pollute 
the young plants that spring up by virtue of home and 
family. 

Again; the home is a fountain whose purity or impurity 
aifects all those other streams that flow from its sources. 
Its influence is largely in the ratio of the freedom and 
force in which these relations are established, and its 
duties enforced. 

The origin of the home and family with, all their obliga- 
tions and duties, as well as the foundation elements com- 
posing them, 

(a.) Are found first in the conjugal or marital relations, 
and the obligations and duties arising therefrom. 

The family implies the union of two important elements 
or factors, and only tivo, viz., the man and the woman; 
and, we may add, but one of each. This is evidently 
nature's law; and its violation always breeds disorder of 
some kind. The relation itself implies the unity of 
hitherto independent elements of equal force and import- 
ance, the increase or diminution of either of which not 
only destroys the nature of the compound, but multiplies 
perplexities beyond human control. 

The twain in original condition become one in new con- 
dition, one in sentiment, purpose and act, if the union is 
a perfect one. Each original element or factor changes 
its natural and premarital relations, entering into a new 
compound, thereby assuming new obligations and duties, 
which give rise to the Home. The parties become hus- 
band and wife, with all that these terms imply; and they 
are no more Ci twain," but " one flesh/' And whether this 
union is regarded sacred or secular, whether indissoluble 
or merely conventional and thereby subject to dissolution 



140 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

for any just cause — but not, certainly, for any slight one 
— the "obligations" assumed and the "duties" arising 
therefrom are the same. They, at least, are sacred, and 
the infidelity of either party should be regarded equally 
reprehensible. 

There can be no more sacred relations established among 
human creatures, and the results are in strict conformity 
to the manner in which these relations are observed. No 
penalty or opprobrium attaching to one party of this 
union, for violation of obligation, should fail to attach to 
the other. And this is equally true and binding with the 
parties before the union takes place. Virtue is virtue, 
and vice is vice, wherever it appears, and by whomsoever 
the act is performed; and the rewards and penalties should 
be the same in all cases. 

Marriage among all civilized nations, in all ages of the 
world, has been regarded more or less sacred or binding; 
and the purity of the relation, when properly guarded, is 
such as to leave no question as to its rightfulness. But 
no one can fail to see that it involves some of the gravest 
responsibilities and the most sacred obligations that can 
possibly arise in all man's career. It stands at the natural 
and legitimate gateway to the perpetuation of the human 
species, and the perpetual guard to social purity. I say 
natural, because unperverted nature protests and even 
rebels against any other means of perpetuating the species. 
And yet, even this relation is often abused in the spirit of 
it, if not in the letter, both because of ignorance and 
inattention — more frequently — to the laws of mutua 1 
adaptation. The parties, therefore, seeking this relation 
should be so well mated as to age and temperament, as to 
produce the best, and, I may say, an improved progeny, 
from generation to generation, until human weakness, in 
all forms, shall be reduced to the minimum; while the 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 141 

best qualities of the race shall be constantly improved, 
and brought to their maximum strength and purity. 

But it is doubtful, I think, whether or not the human 
species shall ever reap the whole benefits of the marriage 
relation, until either by a vastly improved education, or 
by legislative enactments, the proper checks shall have 
been placed upon the choice of marital companionship. 
The laws of heredity must be consulted in preference to 
those of animal affinity; and not only consulted, but 
obeyed, before the human race shall reap the full benefits 
of the marriage relation. 

This subject should receive careful attention and study 
in a system of morals looking to the fullest benefits of 
social reform. But its further consideration here would, 
perhaps, be irrelevant, since so much has already been 
said and written on this subject by medical men and social 
reformers; and since it is one of those reforms that must 
come through general intelligence, which requires time. 

This brings us to notice, in the next place 

(b.) The Parental Relations and Duties. These, of 
course, have their origin in the marital relation, and 
assume additional importance threrefrom. The parties to 
this relation now become father and mother, out of which 
new relations spring, and new duties arise. 

Before assuming these responsible relations and duties. 
due preparation should be made, not only in the way of 
general knowledge and culture, but in special information, 
and an abounding fund of practical wisdom; so that the 
offspring may reap the full benefit of this parental culture 
and wisdom. 

By virtue of his being and relations, every child has a 
natural right, not only " to be born well," but to be well 
cared for afterwards. The training of the infant and 
child should be such as to secure the very best results, 



142 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

physically and mentally, since the early impressions 
and habits are those that weigh most in the subsequent 
career. [See chapter on Obedience and Will.] 

In discussing the obligations and duties of the parental 
relation, it will not be expected that we attempt an 
exhaustive list, since they are both so numerous and pop- 
ular that most persons can study them in connection with 
the ordinary affairs of life, and from the much that has 
been both said and written in our common literature. 
Among the many and most important, the following may 
be named: 

(a.) The Proper Exercise of Parental Affection and 
Parental Authority. These two things have a peculiar 
bearing upon each other. They may serve both as mutual 
checks and mutual prompters to' vigorous and healthy 
growth; or they may lead to directly the opposite of 
these. The affection is necessary to prompt protection 
on the part of the parent; and this gives him a right not 
only to protect, but to control, to protect the innocence 
and helplessness of the child, and to direct it in the 
untried paths of duty. Under this wise protection, the 
innocence is preserved, the hel]3lessness changed to help- 
fulness, and the right of authority conferred and perpet- 
uated. [See Blackstone on Nat. Law.] 

The love of offspring is a natural impulse or affection, 
and strong in human beings, and in all animals. This, as 
ha« been intimated above, is necessary for the protection 
of the young, during their periods of helplessness. In the 
lower animal, this feeling is classed with the instincts; but 
in man, it is clear, this instinctive feeling must be con- 
trolled, and directed by human reason; so that a consis- 
tent family government may be established and maintained 
for the proper training of the youn-g, whose natural condi- 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 143 

• 
tion and inclinations are those of dependence, rendering 
them favorable to ready cultivation. 

This natural affection, without such restraints as reason 
and culture may institute, like most other strong impulses, 
is also one of the most dangerous elements in family gov- 
ernment. Without proper judgment this feeling is apt 
to blind the eyes of the parent to the faults and weaknesses 
of the offspring. It is also subject to great abuse from an 
opposite direction, as when a parent, by virtue of inherent 
right to govern the acts of the child, loses all self-control, 
and gives full vent to passion and cruel treatment. And, 
to show that this is only perverted affection, we often see 
this unholy exercise of it followed by the keenest remorse. 

But as this subject has been treated at some length 
under "Incentives," etc. [see Chapters VIII and IX], 
we forbear any further notice of it here, more than to say- 
that this matter should receive the most careful study 
in this connection also. The strongest force in family 
government is self-control. It prepares the way for a 
judicious exercise of all other gifts and graces. Without 
it, the most brilliant talents are not only rendered help- 
less, but often hurtful. And this brings us to notice 

(b.) Patience and Forbearance in the management of 
children, virtues of kindred significance and importance to 
the foregoing, and necessary in all the affairs of life, espe- 
cially in school life. 

The natural inclinations of childhood, both in the home 
and in the school, lead to many outbreaks of passion, 
peevishness, petulance, and perversities of various sorts; 
and not unfrequently laziness and stupidity are superadded. 
But patience and forbearance, coupled with wise manage- 
ment in other respects, are the sure antidotes for these ills, 
and a " thousand others that flesh is heir to." 

" Let patience have her perfect work," not alone in 



144 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

9 

waiting — though this were a queenly grace — but in devis- 
ing ways and means for managing these pervading evils. 

One of the great secrets in the management of children 
is in the prompt employment of ready means for engaging 
all their spare energies, that otherwise take the form of 
mischief. There is, or ought to be, no natural waste about 
a child. Every impulse has its meaning ; and, if teachers 
only have the wisdom and patience to give proper direction 
to all this superabundance of unregulated force, it may all 
be utilized. It is usually the natural fertility of the soil 
which becomes fruitful for evil, if not employed in good. 

Example and precept, of course, are all necessary, but 
nothing tones down the untamed nature of childhood like 
work of some kind; and the more inviting it can be made, 
the better. Much of this untamed force of youth will be 
found, upon close inspection, to be the breaking away 
from the natural channels of life, of that which is inher- 
ently good, but only evil because wrongly applied. 

It, therefore, is the legitimate result of mistaken manage- 
ment. The moral nature in particular is often perverted and 
poisoned by these ebullitions and overflowing of a fertile 
nature. These ebullitions, otherwise harmless, become hurt- 
ful simply from the direction they may have taken. Out 
of these natural impulses, as from the natural fertility of 
the soil, when under proper cultivation, will grow the 
healthiest plants of virtue and wisdom, if time, patience 
and perseverance are allowed to do their wonted work in 
early childhood. 

To patience and perseverance let kindness and firmness, 
sympathy and justice be joined, with judgment and discre- 
tion as helmsmen, and the little bark of infancy and child- 
hood, freighted with so much of human concern, may be 
safely moored in the harbor of security, and at least a 
measure of success. 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 145 

Again: the proper exercise of parental affection gives 
rise to a corresponding feeling on the part of the child as, 

(c.) Filial affections, which, in time, give rise to still 
another class of obligations and duties. These affections 
include the impulses and desires in the heart of child- 
hood to respond to the parental affection, or to reach 
towards the parent or supporters for natural protection 
and support. These latter arise both from brother and 
sister alike, called fraternal affection in the first ; but, 
unfortunately, we have no generic word in English by 
which to express the latter. But sisterly is a good house- 
hold word, strong and loving : for a sister's love or hate, 
may make or mar a brother's peace, when won or lost in 
the family's sacred precincts. 

These filial affections constitute the basis of voluntary 
obedience ; since the affectionate regard of the child for 
the parent, leads to the voluntary acceptance of the just 
claims of authority, as wrought in the higher departments 
of the soul's faculties. [See definition of obedience, Chap. 
VIII. ] 

And then again, the home affections may be so broadened, 
as in the case of the fraternal affections, as to embrace the 
whole human family — a universal brotherhood ; and the 
latter assumes the same, and even stronger benevolent 
characteristics, when subjected to the world influences. 

The obligations and duties arising from the development 
of these home affections, are diversified and important ; 
among which may be named obedience to parents, respect 
to rightly constituted authority, love of home and country, 
and kindred, general benevolence, thankfulness, gratitude, 
and indeed, the exercise, under proper restraints, of all the 
moral sentiments treated under the first and second divis- 
ions of ethical attributes [see outline, p. 63] except adora- 



146 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

tion ; and the duties of the parent are such as to give rise 
to these sentiments, also. 

(d) The" Sacredkess of Motherhood can scarcely be 
estimated, much less over-estimated. It is safe to say that 
no more solemn and responsible relation or duty exists 
among human beings than that of ushering into world 
life, and caring for little children, freighted with the 
immense interests and responsibilities attaching to them. 
Men and women may be excused for many of the mistakes 
that they make in life, on the ground of mere ignorance ; 
but, with the vast experience of the human family staring 
them in the face, it would seem that ignorance here is a 
feeble excuse. Judgment and wisdom should be heeded; 
but such is not the case as yet, and it is presumable, at 
least, that this state of things will continue until measures 
are adopted to check this reckless disregard of the teachings 
of natural law. And since this matter seems to be beyond 
the ordinary limits of legal enactments, there seems to be 
no safer or more direct way of reaching this end than to 
early instruct the young respecting the operations of these 
laws . 

To say nothing of the future destiny of the child, his 
present life is one of such importance, not to say doubt 
and uncertainty; as to naturally make one hesitate and 
tremble for the issues of human existence. But then, the 
immense moral influence the mother, by reason of her 
relations, exerts on the child, has no parallel in all the life 
career. The very first impressions are made by her. The 
very first impulse to voluntary activity, the first feeble 
flutter of thought, the dawning of intelligence, and the 
first lisping in language or expression, are all more or less 
shaped by the mothers act, or look, or word. 

Take from the world a mother's influence for good, and 
the whole face of nature is changed. Remove her delicate 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 147 

hand from the trembling, tottering superstructure of 
morality, and the whole fabric will tumble into promis- 
cuous ruin. But let her stand firm, and our temple is 
safe. Let her be true to her sacred trusts, and our hope in 
the future is strong and abiding. 

But the further discussion of the home influences, obli- 
gations and duties are reserved for another part of this 
volume. Our second topic under Domestic Obligations 
and Duties refers to the 

2. School, as the one nearest the home. The school has 
a wide, an almost limitless influence, especially in our own 
country. Standing, as it does, next the home, it should be 
planned as nearly as possible after the similitude of a good 
home. The kindergarten, however, where established, 
forms the connecting link between the home and the 
school proper, and makes the latter a welcome companion 
and adjunct, provided it is organized on a similar scientific 
plan : i. e., all its exercises and duties based upon, and 
adjusted to, the evident wants of childhood and youth. 

The primary school, therefore, should be a home for the 
little ones, fresh from the mother home. As stated above, 
it should be planned and conducted, as far as possible, 
after the manner of a real home, provided with as many 
things as possible to remind the child of his real home, 
if that home is a worthy one ; so that the transition 
from the one to the other shall not be so great as to jar 
upon the tender sensibilities of the child, or make him long 
and fret for his real mother and home; and if the child's 
real home is not what it should be, the primary school should 
supply the missing parts as far as possible. 

Here, then, appears the great moral influence of the 
good school. At this, the very gateway of childhood into 
a miniature world, he should be met by another mother — not 
necessarily a step-mother — but a teacher mother, having 



148 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

all the tender sympathies, affections and tastes of the wise, 
refined and affectionate mother of his real home. Allow- 
ance, of course, must be made for those homes that are not 
homes, but merely lodging places for destitute childhood 
and youth. But even for such, the home influences of 
the good school will be all the more grateful to the outcasts 
from the real home. No other moral influence like the 
home; and no other intellectual stimulus like this ; and let 
me add that this is the one great moral influence which our 
schools need. It is better than all books ; and better than 
all precepts and preaching. Let the world awake to the im- 
portance of this, and the major part of our moral teaching 
is done, and effectually done. 

This the child finds or should find in his 
""' (a.) Teacher. She* is the ruling spirit of the school- 
house, as the real mother is of the home. In her large 
heart of sympathy and love, she — if a true teacher — has 
room for every urchin, however unkempt, every waif wan- 
dering for the first time away from his mother and his first 
home. 

The teacher's influence is thus second only to the 
mother's; but when these motherly instincts have been 
dulled or dwarfed, or left even in an undeveloped state in 
the real home, then the teacher's moral influence may far 
transcend that of the mother. In such case the teacher 
becomes the real mother to the mind and morals of the 
child, imparting that genuine moral nourishment for 
which the pupil may be perishing at home: and these are 
not always the homes of poverty either. More frequently 
the homes of opulence, of fashion and folly, homes 
where the mother has relegated the duties she owes her 
children to ignorant and careless servants and nurses; 



* We use this form of the pronoun here to indicate the real teacher of 
young- children. 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 149 

homes where all the holier ties of motherhood and father- 
hood have been smothered by fashionable folly, or by the 
unnatural greed for gain, or merely sensual pleasure. 
These are more distressing than the homes of poverty and 
want; for often in these humbler abodes dwell the true 
hearts and true virtues. 

Let the teacher, therefore, be faithful to all those 
higher instincts of maternity, that she may supply what is 
lacking at the homes. Let her be true to all those sacred 
obligations and duties; and the school will be only a 
second home to the child from the loving home, and the 
real home to the unfortunates, whether from wealth or 
poverty (two extremes about equally disastrous to true 
morals), that have never known a true home. 

But another strong moral influence resides in the asso- 
ciations of the school. These must not be overlooked. 
I mean the moral influences arising from 

{p.) The Pupils and Associates. It is a well-established 
fact that childhood and youth are greatly influenced by 
associates of like habits, kindred studies and employ- 
ments. Aside from "the esprit de corps " of associates 
in school or in class, the moral influence arising from 
numbers, from the popular thought, belief, custom and 
general sentiment and talk is very great. This is neces- 
sary as a preparatory step from the home to the business 
and pleasures of the world. Children are imitative and 
formative; and many of their moral and intellectual traits 
are more or less the results of early associates. 

The pupils' obligations and duties to the teacher and to 
each other, are much the same as those of the children of 
a family. The brotherly and sisterly affections of the 
family are only broadened, and generalized in the school . 
It therefore affords, through these channels, its appoint- 
ments and duties — the best opportunities for the cultiva- 



150 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

tion of good manners, politeness and gentility, which are 
the charm of good society; and these virtues and moral 
sentiments find ample room for exercise in the ordinary 
intercourse of school work. And this gives rise to another 
moral force, viz. : 

(a.) Tlie General Cooperation of teacher and pupils, and 
teacher and parent. This is only typical of the duties and 
responsibilities of the world life, further on; but it bears 
with great weight upon the general success of all plans for 
moral progress. Without this general cooperation, both in 
school and business, the best projects may be defeated. A 
question frequently arises in schools, as to the extent of 
parental influence and authority in the management of 
school affairs. It is partially answered by citing the legal 
relations of teacher and parent, and child and teacher. 
The "in loco parentis" of the teacher is only temporary; 
but it should cease only when the pupil is beyond the 
teacher's immediate control; and it may be assumed that 
where the teacher's control ends, after ordinary school 
hours, be it gradual or sudden, there the parent's begins, 
and vice versa, before such hours commence. 

But the greater moral influence arises from the hearty 
cooperation of parents and teachers in the joint manage- 
ment of the child. Let it be understood that the wise 
measures of the teacher are heartily seconded by the parent; 
and that there is a general cooperation in all school mat- 
ters, and the moral effects are manifold greater. But let 
these measures be disputed, and the general management 
discredited by open force, or by silent neglect, and the 
very flood-gates of vice are wide open. 

This cooperation must also be mutual. The teacher 
should consult the parent's wishes in matters relating to 
the child, but only so far as they are not personal or sel- 
fish; for the parent has no more right legally, or other- 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 151 

wise, to interfere with the special affairs of the school, 
than the teacher has to interfere with similar affairs of the 
family. The fact that the parent is represented in the 
school by his child, and therefore has a greater interest, 
and right to interfere wilh the management of the school, 
is offset by this other fact, that the teacher has almost an 
identical interest and right in every family of the neigh- 
borhood; and the additional fact that the order and suc- 
cess of the school depend almost entirely upon non-inter- 
ference of parents in the special management of the school. 
Each party to the school compact has its sphere of action; 
and when these spheres seem to cut into each other, both 
must alike be guarded. 

The parent, therefore, should be free and candid in 
accepting the advice of the teacher, and both should yield 
so much of private opinion and preference, as to make all 
lawful measures for the management of the school the 
most popular and the most binding. And from the home 
and the school, which are largely preparatory in their 
influence and character, there arises another relation, look- 
ing largely to the world life, which may be considered 
fairly opened in our next chapter, viz. : The obligations 
and duties arising from certain necessary conditions which 
may be called 

3. Neighborhood Acquaintance. This is stated as a 
necessary relation in all communities where the members 
are more or less dependent upon one another for society 
and support. This relation has its peculiar laws and duties, 
and therefore maybe made peculiarly useful in bettering 
the condition of the parties concerned. 

Man is asocial being, dependent upon his environment 
for both happiness and for full development . As a social 
being, he has native desires that reach beyond the mere 
boundary of home . The neighbor, therefore, is a necessary 



152 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE, 

factor in completing and rounding out his relations; and 
therefore these must be reckoned among those out of which 
grow moral obligations and duties in all civilized communi- 
ties. Among these we find the 

(a.) Social intercourse, not included in the family and 
the home. If the members of a community are such as we 
usually find in ordinary society, the refinements arising 
from this source are very great, and very desirable. The 
whole social compact, outside the family and school, rest 
upon this neighborly relation, out of which just occasions 
arise for the exercise of those social amenities named in our 
list, as integrity and honesty, fidelity and truthfulness, 
justice and generosity, compassion and kindness, gratitude 
and thankfulness, sympathy and friendship, mercy and 
forgiving patience, without all of which, the world would 
present one great barren waste, where not a single plant of 
virtue might safely abide. 

To show the eminent need of these relations, and their 
great force in forming the character of society, and to show 
the salutary influences arising from neighborly refinement, 
and the consequent moral culture thereby begotten, we have 
only to compare the rough, uncouth, and often criminal 
tendencies of children reared away from the refinements 
of polite society, with those having all the advantages of 
the best society. And by polite society we do not mean 
necessarily the most luxuriant nor the most learned, but 
that healthy product that comes alike from labor and 
learning. And then, again, nearly all the duties of life 
pass this intermediate point, between the home on the one 
side, and the world beyond the mere neighborhood, on the 
other. Hence, lei these beneficent influences enter largely 
into our account of means for the cultivation of morals in 
childhood and youth, bearing in mind always that the 
silent influences are the greater. 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 153 

The foregoing feeling and sentiments indulged in a 
legitimate way, give rise to what me may call 

(b.) Friendly Confidences. Here we have a still higher 
and stronger sentiment, and a greater moral incentive. 
True friendship is one of the strongest ties that bind 
human hearts and human interests. It is one of the 
world's greatest blessings. It calls forth and develops 
some of the loveliest traits of human character . It rests 
upon a just appreciation of those nobler qualities in 
human nature that win oar regard, esteem and confidence, 
and that constitute a ready passport to the more refined 
enjoyments of social life. Its chief characteristic is a 
mutual confidence and trust in the recipients; and where 
the feelings are genuine, they grow stronger and stronger, 
and time, and suffering and trial only increase the strength 
of the bond. It refines and cultivates, enriches and 
ennobles whatever it -embraces, and enables its possessor 
to endure hardship, to suffer privations and to overcome 
difficulties, where the unaided efforts might perish in 
oblivion . It sacrifices self for the good of its objects, and 
builds up a lofty sentiment of moral worth. It may, there- 
fore, enter into all business and pleasure, and should give 
shape and character to all of that part of our social inter- 
course where mutual obligations and relationships arise, 
And then again, the proper exercise of these higher quali- 
ties of human nature will lead to the establishment of » 

(c.) True Business Relations, the most desirable 
object in life. Indeed there is scarcely a relation in life 
that suffers so much, to-day, as these same business rela- 
tions. The reason is, they are usually based entirely upon 
self-interest, which, unrelieved by the higher sentiments, 
is sure to lead to misunderstandings and a corruption of 
morals. It eats like a canker into the very vitals of busi- 
ness, and poisons and corrupts the entire social circula- 



154 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

tion; because children themselves readily imbibe the loose 
sentiments on this subject, so common among merely busi- 
ness relations, from their elders; and because it is so com- 
mon it is all the more dangerous. It calls policy, honesty; 
selfishness, human right; deceit and lying, shrewdness; 
oppression of the poor, prosperity to the oppressor; and 
even open fraud and secret theft, excusable thrift. It 
calls loudly for redress. 

Business enterprises established upon purely selfish 
principles are unworthy the name they bear. But those 
established upon the higher claims of mutual benefit, 
guaranteed and guarded by the higher principles of mor- 
ality and i^ure friendship will go far toward checking these 
evil tendencies; for friendship leads not only to honest 
dealing, but even to self-sacrifice; and it discourages all 
self-seeking that interferes with the rights and welfare of 
our fellow-men. 

The home, school and neighborhood, therefore, stand 
as the open doors to the larger space for the exercise of 
man's faculties, or that which we call his world life, into 
which he enters, and carries with him whatever habits and 
character these domestic and semi-domestic relations and 
duties have cultivated. The buds and blossoms that clothe 
the plants and trees are no surer prophesies of the coming 
harvest and fruits, than the opening of these early charac- 
teristics are of the coming man or woman. And what the 
warm sunshine and showers are to the springing grass and 
opening flowers, these healthy home influences, tempered 
by the wisdom and patience of mothers, fathers and 
teachers, of neighbors and friends, are to the moral senti- 
ments and to the life of coming society. 

Cause and effect are just as intimately related here, and 
as sure in their results, as in any other department of 
nature. And when education as a system shall have been 



HUMAN OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. . 155 

reduced to that exact science, which its principles and 
methods demand, and of which it is eminently susceptible, 
we shall then begin to realize something of the grand 
results treasured in them, and thus made possible and 
potential in our modes of culture. 

This open door leads directly to the practical recognition 
of these possibilities, and paves the way to their realization, 
by the adoption of such measures as shall ultimately exer- 
cise all man's better faculties in all those life relations and 
duties. Nothing short of a full and complete recognition 
of them will ever meet a tithe of the demands of a com- 
munity whose controlling interests pass through these 
intermediate stages of growth and refinement. But, like 
most common things and opportunities, they are apt to be 
overlooked. 

Here, too, appear the workings of the great natural law, 
which is nothing more nor less than the moral law, or law 
applied to moral growth, that runs through every depart- 
ment of the world life and relations, viz., the proper dis- 
charge of the various duties and responsibilities of any and 
of all stations man is required to occupy; even these will 
educate him to the highest degree of his nature, intellect- 
ual, physical and moral. 

Man is not required to turn aside from his necessary 
work, in order to educate himself. His work educates him ; 
and the school is work ; and that system of morals that 
adds or superadds anything outside of these, simply burdens 
him with tasks whose tedious performance rather weakens 
than strengthens his moral nature . Let him simply walk 
in the plain path of duty; and, like the healthy plant in 
the fertile soil, he fulfills his mission; he grows to his full 
measure of manhood; and in no other way can it be done 
in this world. 

Here, then, is the secret of moral culture. Its sim- 



156 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

plicity is almost sublime; and yet men will seek it in doc- 
trines and schemes whose operations are complex and 
complicated, and necessarily more or less defective, simply 
because they are unnatural. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 
Social and Commercial Eelations and Duties. 

These may be considered a continuation of those relations 
and duties in the preceding chapter. Their differences is 
chiefly in their circumstances, and in their application. 

The closing thought of the last chapter carried out on a 
somewhat larger scale, that it may enter into all the rami- 
fications of business and pleasure, will give us a theme 
worthy the most profound thought and contemplation, 
and every way appropriate for completing a system of 
moral culture, covering all the relations in the entire 
period of human life. The pleasure, however, is not the 
direct object, but is more the result of the right applica- 
tion of true principles of education and business; since, in 
all right methods, the influences bearing upon education 
or growth, are reflected in all legitimate directions, in the 
exact ratio of social needs. 

Among the first of these relations and duties may be 
mentioned the common matters of 

1. Contracts and Agreements. These are of dif- 
ferent varieties, arising out of the nature of the business 
and circumstances governing it, together with the circum- 
stances and relations of the contracting parties, such as 
those existing between 

(a.) . Employers and Laborers.— This relation, and con- 
sequent obligations and duties, arise from the mutual de- 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 157 

pendence of man upon his fellow, both for support and 
progress, each affording its modicum of needed opportu- 
nities for mutual benefits and pleasures, and for the exer- 
cise and cultivation of all those moral qualities and prin- 
ciples treated under " Ethical Attributes," Chapter 
VI, as honesty, truthfulness, fidelity, industry, integrity, 
etc. 

On the part of the employer there must be a proper 
appreciation of merit and a just consideration for services 
rendered, which require a due exercise of generosity and 
justice ; and on the part of the employed, a corresponding 
regard for the character and purposes of the employer, 
giving rise to faithfulness in the discharge of duty, hon- 
esty, industry, integrity, and a proper regard for the inter- 
ests of the employer, all of which, on the part of both 
parties, would be a complete guard against selfishness or 
neglect. 

These conditions and principles, properly observed, for- 
ever excludes the possibility of human slavery as it existed 
in the United States, a few years since. This system of 
labor is such a gross violation of the laws of labor, and of 
equality among men and nations, as to render a discussion 
of it entirely unnecessary here. An attempt to justify it 
in any form would be looked upon, among enlightened peo- 
ple, in about the same light as an attempt to justify theft 
or homicide. 

Of course the obligations existing between the employer 
and the employed, are mutual and interchangeable in their 
relations, and self-perpetuating in their nature since what 
is for the benefit of the one party, must, from necessity, 
reflect a similar benefit upon the other. But often, owing 
to undue selfishness, associated with short-sightedness — its 
usual accompaniment — this mutual relationship, or bal- 
ance of benefits, is not seen, much less is it acted upon. 



158 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

It must, therefore, be taught in the schools and in the 
practical affairs of life; for, where these considerations 
have due weight with contracting parties, it is a practical 
ending of all strife, where it may exist; and it is im- 
• possible for business troubles to arise, except in cases of 
mere misunderstanding. And even in all such cases the 
difficulties are all the more readily adjusted, since the 
parties are more easily brought to view such misunder- 
standings from the same standpoint; especially is this 
true where strict integrity and a due allowance for casual 
errors prevail. 

But to show that man is naturally disposed to look after 
self first, which may be, after all, only a slight perversion 
of commendable traits, — self-interest and self-protection. — 
we have only to refer to the many misunderstandings and 
contentions among men, all arising out of real or supposed 
violations of contracts, and these again always having, at 
least, one selfish side, and more frequently two. 

To be sure, it is but natural and right, that each party to 
a contract should look after his own interest. But if each 
party can only be led to see — which we think can be done, 
if proper care and pains are taken in training the children 
— that the true interest of one party always involves that 
of the other, the trouble will usually be of short duration : 
for when one's own interest, or even supposed interest, is 
invaded, or when it encroaches upon that of one's neigh- 
bor, then the law of mutual interest, the law of labor, the 
law of the universe is assailed, as well as that of moral 
rectitude ; and trouble is sure to ensue. There is no 
release from the dominion of this law, and its penalties are 
sure to follow, sooner or later. 

But where the interests of contracting parties are shown 
and believed to be identical, these troubles and contentions 
end from the natural want of nourishment from both sides. 



SO CIAL AND COMMERCIA L RELA TIONS. 159 

The man who takes advantage of his neighbor is always 
the injured party in the end. Moral rectitude is a law 
whose demands are always exacted, to the utmost farthing, 
somewhere in the history of every individual who violates it. 
As well expect to evade the penalties of bruises and burns, 
as to escape the possibly remotest penalties of a broken 
moral law. 

All contentions, therefore, are not only selfish but short- 
sighted and silly, since they injure no one so much as the 
offending party or parties. Seldom, indeed, do we find 
trouble or contention between neighbors, arising from an 
attempt of either party to confer favors upon the other. 
This would virtually be an error in benevolence, but it 
would make a better showing than its opposite. It would 
most likely put an end to all contentions and strifes among 
men, greatly to the peace and harmony of neighborhoods 
and states : and yet all contentions among men, all litiga- 
tions and personal quarrels, all wars and national disa- 
greements are subject to these same laws. How much 
more easily and economically could they be settled, if men 
would only consent to be ruled by reason and common- 
sense, rather than by selfishness, and unholy ambition! 
and how much of this selfishness and this unholy ambition 
could be checked, if taken in time, and if only the early 
opportunities in families and schools were improved for the 
cultivation of these moral sentiments, and for confirming 
them, ere children are thrust out into society, to become 
an easy prey to these infirmities ! And that they can and 
will be thus improved and confirmed, are surely within the 
possible and highly probable scope of human progress, else 
education is a failure, and morals and religion mere myths. 

But the trouble usually arises from an attempt of one 
party, and sometimes both, to take advantage of the other 
in a bargain or contract ; and this too is taught by exam- 



160 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

pie at a very early age, showing not only great ignorance 
of this law of righteous compensation, but a total disregard 
of the equally righteous laws of heredity. As the fathers 
do, so do the children ; showing also that natural selfish- 
ness, however commendable as a basis of culture, in most 
natures, needs the common restraints arising from well 
ordered schools and society. Xational and international 
difficulties usually have the same origin as those of the 
family and school, and the same remedies for their cure, 
though often much more expensive. But the broad mantle 
of charity must, under present circumstances, cover a multi- 
tude of national as well as individual sins. 

But the law of contracts requires a large admixture of 
benevolence. The employer, for instauce, should not only 
be willing and ready to meet all legal obligations, but 
willing and ready, at all proper times, to transcend them 
in some slight degree, to grant favors to the employed, as 
for instance, an occasional holiday — often a much-needed 
respite from continuous toil — and even additional pay, in 
case of faithful service, though never as a bribe, or to 
impose additional obligation upon the laborer. 

True, there may be no business rules authorizing this, 
not even a moral obligation; but it should be simply an act 
of kindness, an overflow of generous sentiment, which 
acts like oil upon machinery, which would soon consume 
itself — much in the same way human obligations do — with- 
out the lubricating oil of kindness. Like begets like 
here, as in all cases of cause and effect. So, on the part 
of the employed, an occasional extra hour, a voluntary 
" helping hand " in a pinch, a stroke or two quietly given 
in secret, would affect both laborer and employer — chiefly 
the former — as nothing else can or will. " Let not thy 
left hand know what thy right hand doeth" is the briefest 
and best expression of this law, on record. It is an illus- 



SO CIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELA TIONS. 161 

tration of the law of kindness examplified in the common 
intercourse of life. It lifts the giver and receiver into an 
atmosphere of higher moral sentiment by the mere pleasure 
of confering secret favors. It is the holy oil of "alms in 
secret" whose promised rewards are "not of the earth 
earthy." How different this from the selfish desire to 
publish our benevolences to the world! And how different 
from the continual effort of both parties, in most cases, 
to take advantage of the most trivial circumstances, either 
to impose additional duties, or to shirk or avoid duty, to 
slight the work, to use inferior material in manufactured 
articles, to conceal defects, to make the most of the 
failures of others, and the least of our own ! In a word, to 
he dishonest. This is a human weakness for which there 
is no remedy outside the simple requirement of the law of 
"Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto 
you." ^ 

Again : " The grinding of the poor" by those employers 
who have them in their power, as we find it in many large 
manufacturing establishments, and by wholesale merchants 
and others, whose wealth is coined, as it were, from the 
lives of the laborer, is the prevailing sin of the age. The 
exacting of the most labor for the least pay on the plea of 
"supply and demand," a law as vicious in its tendencies 
as it is false in theory, is crushing the life, moral and 
physical, out of thousands of our laborers. Poor women, 
for instance, by reason of misfortune and pressing needs, are 
either compelled to ceaseless toil, day and night, in order to 
live, on wages the most meagre, or else resort to the most 
debasing crimes. . . And this is the practical outgrowth 
of the law of "supply and demand." All this is no better, 
morally, than open robbery and secret murder. And yet, to 
such a low state is the public conscience reduced by this 
unnatural strain for wealth, that no one in particular feels 



162 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

called upon to expose this refined meanness. How long 
shall the people groan under this worse, in some respects, 
than African slavery, so recently abolished ? Yet there is 
a remedy at hand, if we have the courage and consistency 
to apply it. A high degree of moral culture, such as can 
most readily be incorporated in our present system — yea, 
for which this very system ^is showing marked defects — 
will in the end accomplish it all. Our families and 
schools are suffering, and require it in order to meet the 
public demands of the age. Let it be enforced in these 
elementary institutions and it will soon sound a death- 
knell to these grosser abuses in social and commercial life. 
For instance, let these things be frequently brought to 
the notice of the pupils, both in a formal and an informal 
way. Let topics be assigned certain members for discus- 
sion and composition. Let problems in arithmetic like 
the following be given at certain intervals : 

1. A widow lady had five children to support, aged four- 
teen, twelve, ten, six> and four years. She found by hiring 
the first two out to a paper manufacturer for 20c. and 15c. 
per day, respectively; and, working ten hours per day her- 
self, making shirts at 12c. apiece, and buying fuel and 
provisions at 52c. per day, she was able to save $1.10 per 
week for rent and clothing for herself and the three 
younger children: how many shirts did she make per week 
of six days? How many per day? The elder children 
gave 16c. per day of their earnings to help clothe the fam- 
ily: what did they save per week ? Could this mother 
send her children to school? Why? What do you sup- 
pose these two elder children did with their savings ? 

2. How much does the merchant make on these shirts, 
who furnished the material for them and sold them for 
75c. apiece ? What per cent ? Is this a right distribution 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 163 

of the profits of labor and material ? How can we pre- 
vent this abuse, etc., etc. 

Or let some such problems as the following be given, to 
be worked out and reported a week hence : 

Forty laborers are employed in a flouring mill at $1.50 
per day; but they find that the business of their employer 
will be very much embarrassed by closing the mill. They 
therefore quit work, or strike for $1 . 75 per day. They 
remain out of work twenty working days, and then are 
re-employed at $1.60 per day. The employer's net income 
during the first contract averaged $12 per day. Who were 
the greater losers during this strike ? How much, and 
why ? Suppose the workmen return to work after twenty 
days at the same wages, how will the matter stand all 
round ? Suppose new men are employed after ten days at 
$1.30 per day, and the old hands remain without work for 
three months, of twenty-four days each, how much do they 
lose ? Can you calculate the loss in character and morals 
of these men ? Who is chiefly to blame in any and all 
these cases ? 

Let other business and other conditions be substituted 
for these, and encourage pupils to make original questions 
involving moral and financial interests, until they learn to 
think and act for themselves. Let the whole range of 
business be subjected to these practical inquiries, and you 
not only relieve the exercises of the school from stupid 
uniformity, but you make your children practical thinkers, 
which goes, in itself, a great way in cultivating morals. 

Again, it is doubtful whether or not there is any moral 
elevation of sentiment or character, in simply living up to 
the letter of the law, in matters of contracts, etc. The 
simple payment of a debt, for instance, when due, benefits 
neither the creditor nor debtor, in a moral sense. It 
simply leaves both parties just where they were before the 



164 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

contract and its fulfillment were entered into, save that it 
is the exercise of honesty and fidelity. "An eye for 
an eye, and a tooth for a tooth " may have a species of 
rude justice in it, but it is far below the law of kindness 
and mercy, or even "Forgive as ye would be forgiven/' 
And "Do unto others as ye would that they should 
do unto you," while it is purely ethical doctrine, is far 
surpassed in moral beauty and grandeur by that other 
injunction, "If a man sue thee at the law and take away 
thy coat, let him have thy cloak also; or, if he compel thee 
to go a mile with him, to go with him twain." This is that 
simple overflow of goodness that becomes aggressive; but 
it effects more in moral elevation than simple justice and 
fidelity. 

It is the law of kindness practically illustrated. It 
is above justice; and it teaches a lesson that merely 
human understanding can scarcely fathom; for it is the 
spirit that quickeneth, and the life that elevates human 
character. It is the "altar that sanctifieth the gift," and 
not the gift the altar. [See Proposition III., Corollaries 
1, 2 and 3, Chapter I.] 

The moral law is founded upon principles as unalterable 
as the throne of truth itself; and man's happiness and 
highest development consist in strict obedience thereto. 
Its requirements are all benevolent and far-reaching in 
their results; but some of these requirements concern 
simple justice, while others look more to kindness and 
mercy and forgiveness; while no one of these require- 
ments, nor the laws embodyingthem, interfere in the least 
with man's highest development, and greatest prosperity, 
real or supposed. 

In all man's obligations and duties the motto should be, 
"Not how little may be done to fulfill the requirements, 
but how much. Not how slightingly, but how well can 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELA TIONS. 165 

I do my work." This would prevent a thousand mistakes, 
and would end a thousand strifes; yea, and would 'add 
immeasurably to the real enjoyments of both employer 
and employed, by elevating the moral sentiments of both. 

Another relation of kindred character and significance 
is that involved in the intercourse of the 

(b.) Seller and buyer. This, also, is a relation growing 
out of man's conventional necessities. It is a matter of 
mutual benefit if rightly understood and practiced, one 
that is based upon the laws of the division of labor and 
profits, i. e. : one man's labor can be more profitably 
employed in the production of a certain commodity, in 
certain localities, as in mining or manufacturing; and his 
neighbor can do the same with some other commodity in 
another locality, as in agriculture, lumbering or herding. 
Hence the laws of trade or barter are invoked; and both 
are alike benefited, if these laws are rightly interpreted 
and wisely followed. This is a lawful relation, and as 
such, not only confers mutual benefits, but when carried 
out in the spirit of economy and kindness, is a power- 
ful means of man's moral elevation; since it offers just 
opportunity for the practice of moral precepts; and since 
it is "practice that makes perfect." 

But when any of these relations and employments are 
sought merely for purposes of selfish gain, or without 
regard to other and higher obligations, the highest and 
best ends of these relations are defeated. When the 
seller is disposed to take advantage of the necessities of 
the buyer, and vice versa; and when the necessities and 
even the distress of either party are invoked to gratify 
the greed of the other, then this relation is degraded, and 
the parties both suffer the natural consequences; for he 
who cakes advantage of his neighbor in such matters not 
only inflicts a personal injury upon him but a moral injury 



166 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

upon himself, which his blind selfishness will not permit 
him to see. But he is nevertheless the greater sufferer, 
since moral degradation is a greater injury than personal 
inconvenience or even suffering. But the world says not, 
since it only judges from outward appearance, even if any 
notice at all is taken of it. The offender is usually com- 
mended for his shrewd business (?) qualities by this same 
world. But the world is wrong here, as in most other 
cases of this nature; and the moral law, however just and 
right and good, is left to take care of itself. But it will 
surely right itself some day, and in some manner. Its 
penalties are always exacted, though the prosperity of the 
wicked blinds the eyes of worldly judgment; for when 
Justice lingers long, her reckonings are most fearful when 
they are finally exacted. There is no release from these 
penalties. They fall somewhere, and on some one, or 
many; so that even-handed justice is never slackened, but 
falls where the greatest good can be wrought by it. It 
punishes the perpetrator of wrong by destroying his moral 
sentiments and lowering his moral standing and self- 
respect. And there can scarcely be a greater penalty. 
The great world of injustice and wrong is a standing 
illustration of this truth; and the great world of suffering 
and want and degradation is the penalty. When the for- 
mer ceases, the latter will also; and the long suffering of 
the moral law is a standing rebuke to both. The existence 
of evil in this world can proba bly never be satisf actoril 
accounted for to human reason; but the study of these 
righteous laws will probably lead to a better understand- 
ing of this perplexing problem. The injured party, in 
the eyes of the world, may suffer the inconvenience of the 
other party's wrong; and this may seem severe. But even 
this, when received in the spirit of meekness and submis- 
sion, may work a good, since it is better to suffer wrong 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 167 

than to inflict wrong. The latter degrades; the former 
may elevate and refine through discipline. 

Another form of dishonesty is practiced by the seller and 
buyer. It is a common, a little thing, to be sure, in 
human eyes ; but, like a cancer in the human body, it 
eats into the very heart of private and public morals. 
Its ordinary indulgence simply prepares the way for higher 
crimes. 

(c.) Concealing the Truth. — We allude to the common 
practice between sellers and buyers, the former to magnify 
the excellencies of his wares, and to conceal their defects ; 
and the latter to depreciate these excellencies, and to 
magnify the defects. Both practices are dishonest, and 
amounts to downright lying, on a small scale, to be sure, 
but all the meaner on that account. 

" 'Tis naught, 'tis naught, saith the buyer, but when 
he goeth his way, he boasteth himself." And the same 
rebuke is applicable to the seller, since his efforts to 
overreach, generally excel those of the buyer. Both are 
equally reprehensible, and are equally destructive to the 
moral sentiments and the peace of society. Both may be 
corrected ; or, what is still better, both may be prevented 
by a proper care for the lessons of morality, contained in 
ordinary school work, and in all learning and relations in 
early life. Indeed, all forms of dishonesty have a cure. 
The main object is to find these cures, and to be able to 
apply them. But by a careful inculcation of the moral pre- 
cepts and practices involved in the ordinary teaching and 
study of the common branches of learning, coupled with a 
frequent application of these to the common duties of 
school life, as it proceeds over the path of preparation for 
world life, as in the practice of truthfulness, honesty and 
strict integrity in study and recitation, with justice and 
generosity in such business transactions as may be intro- 



1G8 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

duced into school life, with patience and politeness in social 
intercourse, and much, if not all, of this moral elevation of 
sentiment and character may be effected. Mathematics, 
Language, History, Geography, Astronomy and every other 
branch of learning abounds both in moral truth, and the 
teaching of it in opportunities for its inculcation. Why 
not use them thus ? 

The family, the school, and the community of interests 
into which these earliest institutions lead, are the three 
distinct factors of relation, requiring the exercise of the 
best qualities and faculties of human nature — all necessary, 
all convenient, all leading to the highest expression of 
manhood and womanhood, all combining to build the 
soundest and most enduring moral character. 

(d.) Ignorance, and Inability of Seller or Buyer. — The 
question might also arise here : Is it strictly honest for 
either the seller or buyer, under any circumstances, to take 
advantage of the ignorance or inability of the other party 
in trade, as in the case of a "corner" in grain, stocks, or 
commodities of any kind in the market ? or to conceal 
anything pertaining to values, as in the case of hidden 
treasures, or undiscovered wealth, as minerals, unknown 
to the seller, or of any sudden change in market prices, or 
great scarcity, or unusual demands for commodities of any 
kind, as the buying and selling of lands or other property 
known by either party to possess values not known to the 
other ? 

We answer, unhesitatingly and emphatically, that all 
transactions in which either party is greatly profited by a 
corresponding loss of the other, are wrong, and conse- 
quently immoral in their tendencies, hence should be dis- 
countenanced in teaching, and prohibited, if possible — not 
so much, probably, by legal enactments (except in cases of 
absolute fraud), for legal enactments are proverbially 



SO CIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELA TIONS. 169 

weak, when applied to pure morals, frequently leading to 
violating, instead of obeying the law, and suggesting vice 
and crime, rather than deterring from their commission — 
but by a careful inculcation of strict honesty and fairness 
on the part of buyer and seller; by an elevation of moral 
sentiment in school and family life, that shall scorn to take 
advantage in trade, or in any dealings, that would violate 
the spirit of that rule which all moralists accept, and 
which so happily accords with all true moral sense, viz. : 
" Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you " in 
the same or similar circumstances. 

This would put an end, not only to all stock and real- 
estate gambling, but gambling of every kind — to all lot- 
teries and mere games of chance or cheating, where money 
or property exchanges hands without an equivalent, not in 
risks, but in real values. No other exchanges should be 
tolerated, or even winked at, which latter is often the most 
effectual way of inculcating dishonesty. This open fair- 
dealing would be simply placing strict justice on the 
throne of equity and conscience as guardian of conduct, 
subordinating selfishness to the higher claims of judgment 
and reason. 

And it is doubtful whether or not the present system of 
insurance, in all its phases, would stand this test of strict 
equity and fair dealing, even if it would that of moral 
honesty. The declared objects of insurance, however, are 
benevolent — systematized benevolence, for instance — but 
whether these boasted benevolences fall where they are 
usually most needed, may be a question. Indeed, we think 
they do not, even in a majority of cases. True, we have 
instances — a few — where, it would seem, a real benefit is 
bestowed — for a consideration — upon worthy and deserving 
objects. And these are the cases that are usually pub- 
lished — with some extra flourishes, to be sure — but still 



170 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

published ; for the public eye should not be blind to those 
benefices, whose heralding will certainly be no detriment 
to a business that lives largely by advertising. But this 
same heralding, according to Prop. Ill, Cor. 2, vitiates 
the act of benevolence, as such, even if the heralding is 
thorough and generally true; for hundreds of cases occur, 
doubtless, in which the insurance is an absolute financial 
loss, instead of a benefit, to the insured. 

Take, for instance, the few cases in which the sum of 
the premiums, with ordinary interest from dateof payment, 
would exceed the amount of insurance, and the many, in 
which the insured, by reason of inability to pay the dues, 
lose both the premiums paid, and the amount of the 
policy; and the losses will equal, if not exceed, the finan- 
cial gains. The writer happens to know a case of life 
insurance in which the policy- — $5,000 — was cancelled 
because the holder went, by order of his commanding 
officer in the army, beyond the parallel of 33° South Lati- 
tude, though in defense of the rights and liberties of his 
country; and this company who insured this party, realized 
about $600 in premiums from this soldier, who lost both 
premiums and policy by defending his country, and with 
it, the insurance companies thereof. And this case was 
not published, as the writer ever knew. And the writer 
happens to know, that the same person insured again for 
the same amount in another company, after losing in the 
first, and lost a second time, because of reverses he could 
not avoid, being reduced in means, and unable to pay 
dues. And this was not published in the insurance reports, 
as he is aware of. Thus, many cases, I suppose, might be 
cited both of life and property insurance, which, if reported, 
woc.ld not add anything to the credit of insurance, as then 
conducted, at least. It may be better now. 

And then the beneficences, when they do occur, are 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELA TIONS. 171 

neither uniform nor fair, if measured by the actual needs 
of the insured. They fall mostly to the fortunate, and of 
these not always to the most needy. I mean by "fortunate," 
those who have been able to pay the required dues. The 
most unfortunate are left without help. But pure benev- 
olence falls only where the needs are greatest. It does 
not ask, " have you paid your dues, but are you needy?" 
It does not make misfortune an occasion for withholding 
help, nor patriotism an excuse for robbery. 

Again, it requires an army of well-paid agents to carry 
on this business, whose united salaries would go far towards 
relieving want and suffering, if they were so applied. This 
sum is simply enormous; and then the companies themselves 
grow rich and plot against the poor; for, who pays these 
immense salaries of agents? Whence arises this vast accumu- 
lation of property by which the individual members of insur- 
ance and trust companies enrich themselves? Does the 
increase come from original sources, or does it not rather 
arise from a tax — voluntary, to be sure — upon the earnings 
of other employments? In a word, are not these immense 
fortunes, in most instances, built from the broken frag- 
ments of despoiled labor, and from the hard earnings of 
the poor? 

We are told that it arises from the legitimate profits of the 
business — from the premiums of the insured. But let it be 
remembered that these very insured often deny themselves 
even the necessaries and comforts of life, defrauding their 
own children of an education sometimes, at a period in 
their lives when help is most needed, that their small earn- 
ings may be added to the sum necessary to meet payments 
on premiums, etc., and that they may reap the spoils when 
death or accident occurs, all for a simple risk, which may 
or may not be necessary in the case; and you, my friend, 
may be sure that this policy will not be paid, however 



172 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

needy you may be from loss, if a possible loop-hole can be 
found in your contract. 

And then again, the temptations to crime, or at least to 
criminal neglect, both in life insurance and property, are 
such as to form a serious objection to the present methods 
of insurance. The same amount invested in some safe 
bank or legitimate business is a surer provision against 
coming want than the building up of monopolies in 
trusts and insurance. Nevertheless, for the present 
necessities, or until some system of active benevolence 
can be started that shall look only after the needy, and 
not after the building up of immense fortunes from the 
hard earnings of the poor, or well-to-do, or even from the 
speculations of the rich, it may be suffered to continue as 
a means of suggesting a better; for it is not always the 
fault of the system. It is in the manner in which it is 
carried out — the advantage that is taken of it. And it is 
doubtful whether or not any legalized system of benevo- 
lence can be instituted that may not be abused. There- 
fore all moral reforms should seek to make men better in 
heart and character; to suppress selfishness in the hearts 
of men rather than in measures or business relations. 
Insurance then and many other similar organizations, 
may become a real blessing to mankind — to the many and 
not the few, to the needy, indeed, and not to the million- 
aire. 

This brings us to consider in the next place, 

Productions and Laborers. 

The former, of course, relates to both what is raised 
from the earth, dug from the mines, manufactured in the 
mills, or gathered from the ocean, forests and streams; 
the latter to those who manage or manipulate these indus- 
tries. The productions, therefore, concern both 

(a.) The Producer and the Consumer. The relations and 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 173 

obligations inhering in these parties are much the same 
as those of the seller and buyer; and the same principles 
and laws prevail here as in the former relations. They 
are mutually dependent, the one upon the other, except 
in cases where the producer and consumer are identical. 
This denotes an independent condition, and obtains largely 
in the simplest forms of society, as in an original or 
unorganized state; or before the arts of civilization multi- 
plied man's wants to such an extent as to make him more 
dependent upon his fellow-creatures. This phase of our 
subject has important lessons for the student of sociology. 
The history of civilization should be studied far enough, 
at least, to enable him to form safe conclusions as to the 
true relations of the several elements of refined society. 

But without attempting a strict analysis of these rela- 
tions, we wish to say that pure economy would teach that 
within given limits, determined largely by experiment, 
the more intimate these relations the better for both 
parties. But it is seldom that the producers either of agri- 
cultural products, or those of the mines, forests or fisheries, 
or of shops, mills or factories, can make direct sales of 
their several commodities. And this gives rise to another, 
or second class of laborers, whose services can not well be 
dispensed with, called 

(b.) Middle Men or Merchants. As just stated, this 
relation seems to be a necessary one in all advanced stages 
of society; but like many other necessary and even good 
things, it is liable to great abuse. As in the case of 
employer and employed, when it comes to be a sub-con- 
tract and a sub-sub-contract, and even this last redupli- 
cated, the profits to sub-contractors and actual laborers 
grow less and less: so when we multiply middle men and 
agents and sub-agents, the profits to actual producers are 
reduced to the minimum, while to consumers the expense 



174 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

is correspondingly great. Hence attempts have been made, 
from time to time, to dispense with some of the middle 
men in business, making the exchange more direct; but 
from some cause, the efforts have not proved entirely sat- 
isfactory, notwithstanding the true policy is evidently in 
the direction of reducing the agents and sub-agents to 
the minimum in number or quantity — while it might be 
worth while to attempt an improvement in quality, also — 
so that profits might be mutual and fair to all parties. This 
would be upon the same principle as an economical division 
of labor, in the department of manufacturing. 

But competition, arising from attempts to build up one's 
lawful business, as well as unnatural greed for gain, car- 
rying that business into the confines of speculation, or 
beyond the limits of wholesome rivalry, have added much 
to the perplexities of these relations. Ic has called into 
the field a class of agents called 

(c. ) Traveling men for the various business houses, whose 
activity constitutes a large share of the exchange of com- 
modities. And while this may be necessary in order to 
carry on trade on this somewhat unnatural high-pressure 
plan, yet it is frought with so many evils that it is worthy 
of notice here. It savors too much of that species of rob- 
bery, in which every man in trade is permitted to take 
every possible advantage of his neighbor, especially if he 
happen to be engaged in the same or similar business. 
This is entirely opposed to the rules of morality, and to the 
greatest prosperity of a people. And it may be fairly pre- 
sumed that the additional expense of keeping up such a 
system of agency — which expense is simply enormous — 
must be added to the cost price of the respective articles 
thus vended, thereby increasing their cost to the con- 
sumer. This, again, is in direct conflict with the laws of 
strict economy in business, and unfair to both the pro- 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. \r, 

ducer and the consumer, since it lessens the profits of -the 
one, and increases the expense to the other, in order to 
support in luxury and high living, a class of men that neither 
produce, on the one hand, nor encourage production on 
the other, since the profits of the commodities are con- 
sumed, or appropriated by the middlemen. The only class 
of persons that seem to realize financial benefits from this 
feature of trade is the first-class hotel keeper; but even 
this, it must be remembered, is somewhat prejudicial to 
the ordinary laborer, since it fosters a select class at the 
expense of some of the most worthy elements of society, to 
say nothing about the increase in the price of goods thus 
burdened with an amount equal to the enormous expenses 
of these traveling agents. 

All this seems to be a needless burden on trade, since, 
with the present facilities for communication and com- 
merce, an order sent direct from the merchant — which is 
really the only middle man needed in trade — to the manu- 
facturer, or wholesale dealer, who is only another grade of 
merchant, could, and would be honored without the inter- 
vention of traveling men. The postofnce, the telegraph, 
and the conveniences in banking and exchange, readily 
supply the means for communication, and make the con- 
nections between merchant and manufacturer, between 
the producer of the raw material and the manufacturer, 
and back again to the consumer^ etc., all that could be 
desired. 

There is still another serious objection to the system of 
trade, as carried on by excessive agency, which is again 
repeated by the salesmen, both among retail and some whole- 
sale dealers, viz., in order to make abundant sales, and 
thus to increase the business of their respective houses, and 
make themselves solid — as the term goes — with their 
employers, these agents often force their goods, by overper- 



176 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

suasion and other mild stimulants ( ?) upon the retail mer- 
chants who, in turn, must use all their persuasive arts in 
order to find sale for their ' ' splendid stock of goods, always 
the best in the market and the cheapest." (?) And thus 
families and other customers, and whole communities, by 
reason of this pampered desire to excel one another, are 
induced to purchase goods beyond their means, and many 
things they do not need. This to be sure is a voluntary 
matter on the part of the purchaser; but the temptation to 
purchase is great, and the sequel too often shows that it is 
too great for the unaided human power to resist. 

Now all these things and many more that will readily 
occur to the thinking student, have a direct tendency not 
only to add unnecessary and expensive conditions to trade, 
but to corrupt public morals, weaken public confidence, 
and create public discontent, which finds ready complaints 
against heavy taxes and hard times. This unnatural and 
unnecessary separation of the producer and the consumer, of 
the merchant and the manufacturer, also prevents and 
destroys that natural sympathy among parties so intimately 
dependent upon each other, so necessary also to successful 
business operations. It damages the body politic in a corres- 
ponding ratio. It is a source of perpetual annoyance that 
should be checked by such restraints as moral training can 
command in early life, and by the enforcement of such 
rules and regulations ;n civil society as strict economy in 
public affairs would suggest, and that strict honesty can 
justify. 

There is still another feature of this general subject which 
we shall call 

(d.) TJie division of labor, intimately associated with 
the foregoing, and leading to the consideration of labor and 
capital. It may be presented briefly thus: 

In order to carry on the affairs of trade, on a larger scale 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELA TIONS. 177 

than usual, and to acquire wealth through labor, more 
rapidly (a thing not always desirable or safe), men have 
found it necessary to associate both labor and capital in 
such a way as to derive greater returns from both. It has 
been found that man's labor is more profitable when it is 
so distributed among persons, that each one shall have but 
a certain part to do, and to devote all his energies to this 
cne thing from day to day. By so doing he acquires greater 
skill and speed; so that ordinarily, he can produce at least 
twenty per cent, more than he can by dividing his time and 
attention among many different parts of the same article, 
or on many different things. This is especially true when 
skilled labor is required, as in factories, mills, shops, etc.: 
so that in the manufacture of a certain article that has — 
say ten different parts or pieces — ten men, each one devot- 
ing his entire time and attention to one part, say in ten of 
these same articles, as a plow, a wagon, or an overcoat, he 
can make his ten parts, on an average, in about four-fifths 
of the time required, working alone, to make the whole of 
one article. This is a saving of one-fifth or twenty per 
cent, on every article manufactured; or, on ten of these 
articles at $10 each, a saving of $20 which usually goes to 
the firm, and not to the man or men who produce it. 

This much, then, for what is known or called a "Divis- 
ion of Labor/' And in some cases the gain per cent, is 
still greater, amounting, in some instances, to more than 
50 per cent., i. e., a man can double his usual amount of 
work by this division of labor. We may be permitted to 
say just here, however, that this division is not so good for 
the man, since his skill and energies are trained only in 
one channel, thus narrowing him down to a mere machine. 
But it enables the manufacturer, sometimes/to double his 
money invested in a very short time; and this has led to 
the founding of large establishments for the production, 



its Elements of ethical science. 

and the varied manufacture of the necessaries and luxuries 
of life. And as the ordinary wealth of one man is not 
usually sufficient to carry on the business on a scale of 
magnificence sufficient to render it the most profitable; 
for — let it be borne in mind — the rate of profits to the 
establishment, up to a certain limit, are in a direct ratio 
to the extent of the business; i. e., a larger per cent, is 
realized from an extensive trade, than from a more limited 
one; and this is by reason of a more extensive division of 
labor; so it becomes necessary, in order to carry on this 
business, to associate capital in a similar manner; and 
this, again, gives rise to what is known as 

3 . Associated Capital, controlling labor and production: 
for it is a fact beyond disputation, that it, in effect, does 
both . It assumes to regulate the price of labor on a larger 
scale, by fixing the rate of wages for those whom it 
employs, — the producer both of the raw material, as in 
the case of farm and mine products, dictating market 
values thereof — and also of manufactured articles produced 
both by labor by the day and also by what is called job 
work, or so much per piece. It also assumes to regulate 
the price of said articles, sold in the common market, so 
that the actual producer, and day laborer have but little, 
if anything at all to say, either in regulating the price of 
their own commodities, or of their labor. And to say that 
this is regulated by demand and supply, is only shifting 
the question, and the responsibility also, to another part 
of the same business; for it is this very feature of the 
business that enables capital to take advantage of the pro- 
ducer and laborer. By timely and extensive purchases .it 
is able to control market prices to suit its own convenience; 
and millions of money is literally filched from the pockets 
of the poor, generally by what is known as a "corner on 
produce." 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 179 

Demand and supply, themselves, therefore, are largely 
the products of speculation. They are artificial to the 
extent that they are controlled by the money market. In 
cases where they are real they always regulate themselves, 
so that labor and capital shall be mutual sharers of gains 
and losses, especially if labor is not oppressed by capital, 
and if it is sufficiently enlightened to take care of itself. 
But of this, further on. 

Let us now consider the main question. In order to 
make business on a large scale safer, and more convenient, 
and to enable it to conduct its affairs as a responsible 
party or as a person, having rights and privileges, powers 
and duties, as well as responsibilities, it is found necessary 
to secure them legal enactments, general and special. 
These we call 

(a.) Corporations, authorized and protected by the 
government, conferring corporate powers. Thus the 
larger business establishments, almost without exception, 
have these advantages extended to them; and the gains of 
these establishments are so manifest and great, the facili- 
ties for production so improved, varied and extensive, 
through modern invention and machinery, that private or 
even smaller enterprises are unable to compete with them, 
either in quantity or quality, nor yet in price of goods; so 
that the government, protecting these institutions of 
industry is entitled, by virtue of advantages extended, to 
a tax from them, equal or nearly equal to the advantages 
conferred upon them. 

This arrangement, therefore, with proper encourage- 
ments and restraints, either legal or otherwise, such as a 
strict regard for moral principles would suggest, would 
seem to be the wisest way of disposing both capital and 
labor, in that it economizes in the use of the former, and 
reduces the latter to the minimum in amount, thus giving 



180 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

more time to the laborer for oft-needed recreation and 
improvement, instead of additional labor; and at the same 
time reducing the cost of the articles manufactured to the 
minimum price, both to the producer and all others. And 
in this, as in all other cases of labor, or invention, the 
laborer or inventor should be a sharer of the benefits aris- 
ing from production and sale, equal to the intrinsic value 
of such labor and. invention. This might be difficult to 
estimate, yet an approximate could, be made and agreed 
upon, subject to such changes as circumstances should 
warrant. 

Again, the employment of improved machinery has also 
had much to do in cheapening labor and the price of man- 
ufactured articles, but not always in the same ratio; since, 
as before stated, corporations and associated capital have 
combined, both to regulate labor and to control prices. 
And this is what constitutes monopoly, both in trade and 
in labor. It is wrong, as any one may see. It is a species 
of slavery. Man should not only own himself, but should 
be free to dispose of his labor and its products to the best 
advantage to himself and others. The monopoly prevents 
this. It grinds the poor, and breeds disturbance where 
harmony and good will should prevail. It gives too much 
power into the hands of irresponsible and often unscrup- 
ulous men, and soulless corporations whose greed for gain 
is practically without limit; and the power to control both 
the price of the labor and the commodity should never 
exist without due restraints. The temptations for the 
abuse of such power is greater than ordinary human 
nature can resist, especially so long as men are selfish, 
tyrannical, and unscrupulous. 

Against this monopoly both the producer and the con- 
sumer alike rebel; especially when these two factors are 
one and the same, since it not only gives capital an undue 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 181 

advantage, but puts this advantage into the haDds of those 
who are not, in reality, producers themselves. And this 
is precisely the advantage that capital takes, of labor in its 
unprotected state, out of which advantage, or supposed 
advantage (for it is not, in every case, real oppression), 
grow our labor strikes and such like disorders, of which 
we have already spoken. And it is questionable whether 
or not any amount of legislation can reconcile these two 
seemingly antagonistic elements in our public industrial 
affairs, viz., Labor and Capital. 

But these two indispensable factors in our civil polity are 
not necessarily antagonistic. Indeed, they are two natural 
allies, thrown into disorder by the unnatural greed of gain 
incident to unregulated human energy and en terprize. But 
legislation can scarcely reach that in our affairs which is 
even largely organic. At least it can not reconcile these 
friendly enemies without removing the cause; for, recon- 
ciled without removing the tendency to disorder, they are 
liable, at any moment, to rush to the renewed conflict 
with more vigor than ever. It is rather a social disorder, 
reached only by education. Educate both capital and labor, 
and you render the conflict practically impossible, since 
you make the interests identical. You show each its true 
sphere of operation, and their mutual dependence, whereby 
their relations become mutually helpful; and in the edu- 
cation of labor we do not mean simply informing it as to 
its rights and duties, but training it in its moral features: 
teaching it that the true dignity of manhood arises from 
labor. [See Industrial Education, Chap. XII.] 

The moral issues here are not less apparent since the 
disorder, is more a social and commercial than a political 
affair. It is continually breeding lesser disorders in our 
body politic, which stand, to day, as the great barriers to 
any successful moral reforms. The social heart must 



182 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE, 

move, before political progress is possible. Any measures, 
therefore, that will check these evil tendencies, whose 
chief instigator is an inordinate desire for money getting, 
and reconcile these contending parties; and above all, that 
will make it impossible for either capital or labor to become 
fractious, and thereby antagonistic to the true interests of 
the people, must be hailed with peculiar delight by every 
lover of "law and order." But I can see no solution to 
this vexed question outside of a consistent system of public 
education, backed by legal enactments, sanctioned by 
public sentiment, and conscientiously carried out in our 
dailv affairs of life. 

Let me repeat it! This truth is worthy a thousand repeti- 
tions. Educate both labor and capital and you make 
conflict between the two impossible. Neglect this, and you 
prolong their struggle indeffinitely, and imperial the national 
existence. The interests of both parties — capital and labor — 
must be made identical. Labor must be educated, and 
thereby elevated to a respectable standing. It must stand 
side by side, socially and politically, with capital, however 
offensive it may appear to a foolish and false aristocracy. 
It must be educated at whatever cost, or we perish by this 
unnatural estrangement and contention of these two 
essential factors in the government. The urgency of this 
matter is our only apology for this oft-recurring senti- 
ment. 

This unnatural estrangement breeds a thousand other 
ills, all clamorous for the life and peace of society. 
Anarchy finds its ready tools in the ignorant and discon- 
tented laborer ; and capital in its present greedy state, is 
ready to take advantage of any weakness it finds in ignor- 
ant labor. Capital is arrogant, and labor is stubborn. 
The one is sharp-sighted, the other is blind. The one is 
cool and calculating ; the other is hot and impulsive . The 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 183 

one would rob, the other would murder; and it is not diffi- 
cult to see the end, if such a state of affairs is permitted 
to remain long, in a free country, especially where license 
is mistaken, oft times, for liberty. 

Indeed the strongest monarchies are powerless in the 
grasp of this monster ignorance, enraged and clamoring for 
bread, or blood. Its ravages are most where the power to 
suppress seems strongest. Civil authority is set at defiance, 
and the wholesome restraints of law are as nought where 
the passions of evil men are set upon by oppression. Even 
the military are powerless to control, though fear may for 
a time prevent open rebellion. Eevolution must eventually 
ensue, when the elements are beyond restraint; and blood 
and treasure are the price paid for unrestrained folly. 

Let good men and governments look to this in time, for 
delays are dangerous, when the people cry for bread, or 
through oppression; and it may not be quieted in a day. 
Nothing but a change in the manner of men and measures 
can effect the needed reform. Legislation has tried, and 
failed. Standing armies may smother the flame in one 
country, but it will again burst forth in some new and 
unforeseen quarter; and woe to kings and crowns when the 
insulted people rise to set right their long and patiently 
endured wrongs. 

But a remedy is at hand. Let it be applied. It is the 
ever recurring remedy, but stronger at each repetition. 
"Educate labor and you elevate it." You make it not 
only equal to capital, but identical with it ; because brain 
will soon win its way to wealth in a free country — and we 
want no other. The hand that represents labor must be 
in close partnership with the head that represents capital. 
There must be no schism. They must be wedded and 
welded by moral obligations taught in our schools. They 
must belong to the same person, and then they can not 



184 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

rebel, the one against the other. And what is true of the 
individual is true of the mass. 

This is the only possible solution to this question; and 
the sooner our people, and all peoples, and legislators, and 
rulers, learn the lesson, and set about proper reforms, the 
better. "We may not defer these reforms until the ele- 
ments are ripe for revolution. Let good men and true 
stand guard until these reforms are reached ; for the cost 
of one revolution would educate every laborer and his 
children, and erect alms-houses for all the poor and 
disabled. Yea, in addition to all this, it would plant 
colonies in all the waste places on the earth, and build 
school houses with their needed work-shops and miniature 
farms, in every district in the land, and in all lands. 



CHAPTER XV. 
Political Relations, Obligations and Duties. 
We finally approach what may be regarded the widest 
range of human relations, obligations and duties that 
belong to man in his present stage of existence. We mean 
those he owes to the state, government, nation and race. 
They are those for which all others should prepare him. 
They are the culmination, so to speak, of all that con- 
stitutes him a man, a neighbor and a citizen. These rela- 
tions etc., we call political, since they involve 

1. The obligations and duties of the citizen to the state 
and government, invoking the highest preparation, and the 
most loyal attachment. 

2. The obligations, etc., of the state and government to 
the citizen, invoking a similar attachment and protection. 

3. The obligations, etc., of the agents and officers of the 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 185 

government to the citizen, the people, and the reciprocal 
of these : and lastly, 

4. The obligations and duties that governments, officers 
and people of one country or nation owe those of another. 

This latter feature of the subject approaches what is 
known as International Law, and may be more advantage- 
ously studied, in detail, from special treatises on this sub- 
ject. An allusion to it in this connection i^ all that is 
necessary. These obligations, relations etc., may be dis- 
cussed here in the same connection, and in connection 
with the ordinary branches of learning, since they all have 
the same moral bearing; and since the introduction of this 
feature of learning in the schools will not only enhance 
the interest attaching to common branches, but will render 
them much more practical. 

Public Morals grow from private and personal sources. 
Indeed, all human relations and duties have their origin 
in the family, the school, and the contiguous range of 
social life. And political morality, while its reality, as to 
existence, may be questioned by some, and ignored in 
practice by others, has, nevertheless, a real existence, and a 
prominent place in history, and in all good governments. 
And while, at present, an honest politician may be regarded 
a "rara avis," in the estimation of some, it should be remem- 
bered that circumstances often give coloring to the char- 
acters of men and measures, that obscure the real truth. 
Actions are often niisjudged, measured more from appear- 
ance than from reality. And then these same circumstances 
are often such as to try men's moral courage, beyond a 
point of ordinary endurance. Men, honest in their own 
eyes, and even honest in the eyes of their neighbors, when 
put to the severer tests of practical experience, and the still 
severer tests of party politics, have fallen an easy prey to 



186 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

the wiles of the wicked. Such men should be pitied as 
well as censured. 

Honesty, therefore, in the eyes of the world, is a relative 
term; and is too often a matter of custom and convenience. 
But to be honest in the face of opposition, and the severest 
temptations, means more than to be apparently good and 
honest, where there is no apparent evil to be combated. 
But real goodness is not merely a negative state; but it is 
intensely positive and aggressive. And it often appears in 
disguise, and in persons and measures, and in places where 
least expected. But if there is any one place in all the' 
affairs of men, requiring stern integrity and severe honesty, 
it is where the people's interests seem to clash with personal 
opinion and personal welfare, and where the agent or 
representative is free to choose either. And if these inter- 
ests are so sacred, and important, and trying, when viewed 
from the representative stand -point, it is equally import- 
ant and incumbent upon the people to be careful in the 
selection of these representatives or agents of the govern- 
ment. And this brings us to notice in the next place. 

I. Those Civil rights and privileges inhering in 
the relationship of the people to the Government 
and its institutions. 

And first, those pertaining to 

1. Tlie citizen. To be a citizen of a good government 
is no mean privilege. Indeed it is in a certain sense the 
highest. It is that station in which all obligations and r 
duties center: and the sacredness of this relation is increased 
when the responsibilities are increased: and the responsi- 
bilities are increased when the citizen is free to choose his 
own form of government, and the agencies for carrying it 
forward. 

But the dangers that beset this relation are also very 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 187 

great, and generally in a direct ratio to the responsibilities. 
A few of these might be named as 

(a.) Indifference to the claims of the government. These 
claims are mainly set forth, not only in the general support 
of the government, required at the hands of the loyal citi- 
zen, as in obedience to the laws, the payment of taxes and 
other dues, but in the faithful discharge of the duties of 
the franchise, where the form of government requires this 
duty, as in the representative form. In this relation, or 
where people choose their rulers and law-makers, it is the 
duty as well as privilege of every citizen to vote; and a neg- 
lect of this duty is a reprehensible act, since an opportunity 
is here offered both for preventing or suppressing evil, and 
promoting virtue, and this offer is shunned or neglected. 
It is as though we saw our neighbors' property endangered, 
and failed to give the alarm; or, worse still, since his life 
and happiness are threatened and we are conspired to aid 
in the mischief. 

Another danger to be guarded againt by the faithful 
citizen is 

(b.) Ignorance of the nature, and of the affairs of the 
government. It is no uncommon thing for the people to 
excuse themselves from voting on the plea of a want of 
sufficient knowledge of the men and measures at issue. 
And another class, not so modest, insist upon the right to 
vote, chiefly because they are ignorant, or rather because 
of ignorance of men and measures. This is the more dan- 
gerous class, since they become the ready tools of unprin- 
cipled demagogues. But it is the duty of every citizen of 
a republic in particular — or of any form of government in 
which the voice of the citizen is required to enact laws, or 
to enforce them — to inform himself, not only as to the 
machinery of the government, but also as to its actual 
manner of working; so that when needed changes are to be 



188 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

made, they may take place without danger, or interruption 
to the regularity of the movement. To be sure, evils may 
right themselves, if left to their natural forces, but it is 
generally much more expensive. Instances may be cited 
in the recent rebellion in the United States. They may 
have many parallels. 

Another form of danger arises from 

(c.) Recklessness in the choice of officers. This is a griev- 
ous offense, and a growing evil in most forms of represen- 
tative governments, where every man is expected to do his 
best in the selection of the agents of the government. But 
the political management is too often intrusted to a few 
party leaders, who generally have the self-assurance to 
manipulate the machinery, and to direct all in their own 
interest, or that of their political friends. But political 
friendships are not usually of the highest order. They are 
usually based upon self interest alone, and therefore, not 
subject to any moral principles or restraints. They mean 
politically this, "You help me and then I will help you," 
but me first and you afterwards, or — not at all. But woe 
to the unfortunate helper, if he fail "in a pinch." That 
usually puts an end to all friendship, such as it is, and 
inaugurates a species of political warfare as bitter as the 
friendship may have been false and hollow ; and these be- 
come great disturbers of the public peace. And lastly, 

(d.) Political parties themselves, while probably necessary 
in the present management of most forms of governments, 
are, nevertheless, a source of immense corruption and 
abuse of power. And while the severe political contentions 
that ensue to distract the country from year to year, or at 
such times as may be agreed upon for choosing officers of 
the government, may serve as mutual checks upon the too 
ultra measures, or wrong policies that may be advocated 
by the opposing parties ; and while these political contests 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 189 

may also serve as a means of general information to the 
people ; yet the party strifes are usually so intense and 
bitter, that the truth is more frequently distorted than 
expounded, and concealed than promulgated. And then, 
political demagogues are continually thrusting themselves 
forward for offices for which they are usually eminently 
unfitted: that it is seldom, indeed, that the humbler citizen 
has an opportunity to vote for the man of his choice, or 
for one honest and capable. 

(e.) Political conventions are another source of evil, 
though in themselves necessary and intended for good. It 
is customary for political parties, in the choice of candi- 
dates for office in a representative form of government, and 
in order to concentrate their votes upon the same individ- 
ual, to meet in convention at some convenient time before 
the political campaign opens, and put in nomination such 
persons as are most likely to command the votes of the 
people, and to win. Unfortunately this winning property 
generally has more weight with party delegates in conven- 
tion than ability to discharge the duties of the office. This, 
however, is not always the case, for it is not an uncommon 
thing that good men and true are chosen. 

Another custom, growing out of the latter feature of 
political conventions, and detrimental to good government 
deserves notice here. It is customary for delegates chosen 
professedly by the people, on assembling in convention, or 
even before, to enter into 

(/.) Combinations, pledging themselves to certain meas- 
ures and candidates, for the purpose of securing such help 
from other counties and districts as may be secured by these 
combinations — sometimes the strong combining with the 
weak — in order to bring otherwise weak candidates into 
prominent notice, and it seldom fails to effect the purpose; 
so that the sharpest management, however unworthy the 



190 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

motive, often defeats the most worthy. This shrewd 
management obtains every where from the municipal to the 
state and national elections. 

Any one may see that this policy carried out as it usually 
is, has a direct tendency to defeat the will of the people, 
and even of a majority of the delegates themselves; for 
they are not at liberty to exercise a free choice of candi- 
dates, but being literally handicapped and pledged, the 
most undesirable are thus foisted into places they are the 
least fitted to fill. Hence persons chosen at primary 
meetings, or at county and state conventions, should be 
pledged not to enter into any combinations whereby the 
will of the people shall be defeated, or their own convic- 
tions compromised. 

This may sound a little Utopian, or at least impractical 
to the average politician; but these same persons are some- 
times loudest in their complaints against political corrup- 
tion, especially if this same corruption happens to be on 
the other side. They will admit, at least, that the most 
worthy men and measures are often defeated by mere 
trickery. Can these same complainers suggest any means 
by which this evil may be corrected? We shall be glad to 
join with them in any measures whereby corruption either 
in high or low places may be abated; but we suggest that 
the surest way to cure corruption is to remove the causes. 
Kill the roots of the tree and the branches will all die. 
Lop off but the evil branches, and others are apt to grow, 
and sometimes worse ones than the first. 

This evil is chronic, and it threatens the peace and pros- 
perity of our country. And like most evils of this nature, 
its effective remedy exists in the more thorough and con- 
sistent education of the children. Patriotism, pure and 
simple, should be taught in every family, in every school, 
yea, in every lesson. In must be ingrained in the very 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 191 

life and habits of these children, or oar boasted education, 
which consists too much in the mere acquisition of a little 
second-hand knowledge, and patent nostrums for money- 
making, will prove a lamentable failure. It must reach 
and renovate the very character and lives of our children, 
or these evils will continue as they have been, if indeed 
they do not grow worse and worse. 

(g.) "Measures rather than Men" — a dangerous fallacy. 

Party measures, however plausible, are not more import- 
ant than the men employed to carry them out. But party 
measures are usually magnified beyond their merits, by 
one party, while they are correspondingly disparaged by 
the other. The good of the country is too frequently lost 
sight of, in this unseemly rage for party measures, when, 
in fact, they may be of small importance, or may not 
be unlike those of the opposing party. It is often a 
distinction without a difference. Not men, but measures, 
has become a party watchword with some; but it should 
be reversed in most cases, especially if the men are such as 
they should be to represent the people. I will trust more 
to a good man, left to untrammeled choice, to carry out good 
measures, in government, than to a bad man to carry out 
good measures, though he pledge himself a thousand times. 
Good men should bear rule in government, is a far better 
and safer rule than " measures rather than men." 

Again: as humiliating as the admission may seem, the 
fact nevertheless remains as a matter of history, that a 
republican form of government is subject to great abuse 
from the 

(h.) Corruption of the Ballot, both in the election of 
officers, and in the enactment of laws. This, perhaps, 
will always remain so, until men and measures are made 
better, which latter is the great problem, not only of gov- 
ernments, but of peoples. It is susceptible of solution only 



192 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

on the supposition that the means for refinement and 
moral elevation placed within the reach of man are ade- 
quate to the occasion. To argue that they are not, involves 
a monstrous absurdity, too gross to be tolerated where law 
reigns, and Divine beneficence is everywhere observable. 

But too many, on the occasion of an election of any 
importance, are weak enough and wicked enough to sell 
their votes for a consideration more or less unworthy, and 
not infrequently for money itself. And there are not 
wanting those infinitely meaner, who, like harpies seek- 
ing their prey, stand ready to pounce upon any weakling, 
likely to serve their purposes. This were a charge too 
serious, were it not known to be true. So that " selling 
offices to the least deserving," has become a proverb, and 
is equalled in depravity only by that other satirical senti- 
ment — " Every man has his price." 

This form of corruption has scarcely a parallel in mean- 
ness, since it not only barters the liberties of a people, 
making crime a partner in government, but degrades the 
participants in this crime far below ordinary theft and 
robbery, since its detection is almost impossible, allowing 
criminals to go " un whipped of justice," and to prac- 
tice their infamy. But among all the offices, within the 
gift of the people, few are ever obtained without some 
departure from the principles of strict honor and morality; 
and among the many legal enactments, emanating from 
legislatures and other law-making bodies, few are not 
tainted with a bargain of some sort. And what is said of 
legislatures may apply with equal force to other seats of 
power. But woe to the man who accepts a bribe to per- 
vert the ways of justice; and woe to the government that 
becomes a party to crime, that the innocent may fall, and 
the ignorant may be ensnared! . . . Again, 

(i.) Tlie lolyist is looked upon, at least as a suspicious 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 193 

character, and often his work and character are anything 
but honest. But the man who will sell his vote on import- 
ant, or even unimportant political measures, discovers a lit- 
tleness and a rottenness that deserve the execration of all 
honest people. There are no more fitting comparisons for 
these two, the lobyist and his pliant tools, than the thief 
and his accomplice. But the buying and selling of patron- 
age, the pledging to support certain personal measures at 
the expense of the government, the enacting of laws as 
mere party measures, without consulting the interests of 
the people, the receiving of bribes for supporting certain 
measures, or yielding to any faction for any consideration 
save that of conscientious convictions, are moral corrup- 
tions that should be pointed out and held up to public 
scorn by every teacher in our public schools, and by every 
man and woman, every lover of good honest government. 
We all agree that these evils in the administration of 
our public affairs should not exist; but are we as ready to 
enter upon measures for their suppression? I see no rem- 
edy involving the thorough uprooting of these evils and 
vices, peculiar to every age and all forms of government, 
other than that which has already been urged for other evils 
of similar character — as those, for instance, in the improper 
relations of capital and labor, viz., a thorough, consistent, 
practical education of all the people; an education that not 
only informs, but trains and reforms that which is 
deformed. But formation is even better than reformation ; 
therefore, let it not only be thorough and practical, bear- 
ing directly upon the great questions of life, but an educa- 
tion based upon the honest and scientific administration of 
home, school and social affairs; an education that affects 
men's hearts, their lives and habits, as well as their 
theories and beliefs — call this religion or morality, or both, 
it matters not — so that the child grows better and wiser 



194 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCLENCE. 

and happier, or at least capable of greater happiness as he 
grows in strength and years. 

The citizen must therefore be intelligent, virtuous, vigi- 
lant, conscientious, faithful and independent— -free in the 
choice of officers of the government; and if party affilia- 
tions and restraints interfere with the free exercise of these 
gifts and graces, they must be thrust aside. Our country 
is greater than any party: conscience is more than policy; 
and honest administration of the affairs of the govern- 
ment, greater than office or official emoluments. 

II. The Purpose and Nature of Government 
briefly noticed. 

Governments were instituted for man. They are of the 
people, for the people and therefore should be by the 
people ; and when occasion offers and requires they may 
be changed by the people for the greater convenience and 
happiness of the people. And this leads us to remark, 

2. That Political Government is the highest expression 
of human power. It should therefore be the highest 
human authority and the greatest conservator of human 
liberty and human rights. 

(a.) All Human Rights, social, political and otherwise, 
are derived from and vested in the people. This deriva- 
tion is either direct or indirect, either with or without the 
consent of the people; either by act or word, acknowledg- 
ing this right, or by implication, as in the case of the 
family, or the tribe, or by the natural allegiance and 
dependence of the inferior upon the superior ; and the 
investiture is correspondingly direct and sacred. As 
in the case of the producer and the consumer, in the rela- 
tionship of capital and labor, the more direct the union, 
or source of control, within given limits, to be sure, the 
better both for people and government; i. e., the nearer 
the people come to the source of control, the greater the 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 195 

sympathy, and the stronger the government, other things 
being equal. Hence, to trace this feature of government 
to its ultimate human source, through all variety of 
agents, until, growing stronger and stronger, as we elimi- 
nate all agents, we shall find it centering in self, or self-con- 
trol, the strongest and best of all governments : and to 
develop this quality or power in man, is also considered the 
highest function of government, whether family, school or 
state. This quality constitutes one of the leading elements 
in all good government, as it certainly is one of its principal 
objects. All governments, therefore, are based originally 
upon rights conferred by superior powers, the consent of 
the governed. 

Tracing the analogy of the producer and the consumer 
still further, we find that, in order to carry out and to 
utilize the principle of the division of labor, middle men, 
or merchants, were instituted, in order to conduct the 
matters between the two sections, viz., the producer and 
the consumer; so, in matters of government, certain parts 
of these governmental affairs are committed, for con- 
venience, to chosen classes. 

In past ages these classes — for there were as many of 
them as there were main functions of government — were 
sometimes selected by the people themselves; sometimes it 
was a matter of common consent; sometimes by violence 
and usurpation. But, without attempting an exhaustive 
history, or an analysis of the origin of government, we 
may assume here that the division of the affairs of the 
government, in this and similar ways, was chiefly for con- 
venience and greater thoroughness. Hence, the different 
forms of government, yet all possessing essentially its 
three great functions, viz., the legislative, the judicial, 
and the executive; sometimes all vested in the same person 
or body, sometimes in two or three. The latter would 



196 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

certainly seem wisest and best; hence, the monarchy in 
different forms, the oligarchy, the aristocracy, and the 
various forms of democracy, pure and representative, in 
which latter, public affairs are committed to select agents 
or representatives. This may be called the republican 
form of government. 

(b.) But the object of all good governments is the good of 
the governed. For this purpose they are, and were, created. 
They are human institutions, ordained for wise and benev- 
olent purposes; and, as such, should be studied, honored 
and obeyed, except in cases where they are clearly wrong, 
and hurtful; in which cases they may be altered to suit 
human needs. The means resorted to in order to effect 
any needed changes should be peaceable, if possible. 

(c.) Hie divine right of kings to rule simply because they 
are kings, has no foundation in reason, and but little in the 
belief of the people, the true origin of poiuer in governments. 
Just as the highest objects of labor are first to benefit 
others (and this is the true view of labor), second, to ben- 
efit the laborer himself, so, good government seeks first to 
benefit the governed; second, to benefit the government 
itself. When these objects are reversed, selfishness is at 
the helm, and suffering ensues. But these objects, when 
pursued in their logical order are mutually beneficial : i. e. s 
what benefits the people most, reacts favorably upon the 
government that protects the rights of the people or the 
citizen; and it will always enhance its own interests in the 
highest degree possible, since this is the legitimate func- 
tion of government. And this is the philosophical and 
practical view of both labor and government. 

This may also be said to be the moral view of these sub- 
jects, which, if carried out in all departments of govern- 
ment, as in the industries, would soon put an end to all 
contention and strife among men, and erect a barrier 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 197 

about the rights of the people and the principles of gov- 
ernment, that time itself would not and could not break 
down. Hence, it may be inferred that that government 
is the best that comes nearest the people, and distributes 
the rights and duties, the emoluments and labors, most 
evenly, economically and justly among all the citizens, 
legislators, rulers and people. 

This brings us to notice, in the next place 

3. TJie delegated obligations and duties: for in this par- 
ticular feature of government rest both the greater moral 
obligation and the greatest difficulties and dangers; since, 
upon the choice of delegates or representatives of the gov- 
ernment, depends the entire responsibility for the right 
discharge of the duties. 

These agents of the government assume different names, 
according to the nature of the duties entrusted to them in 
the different forms of government, differing also in the 
same form, according to the duties assigned. Thus, there 
are different departments of the same government, as the 
legislative, or law-making, department; the judicial, or 
law-expounding, department ; and the executive, or law- 
enforcing, department: and these, in a republican form 
of government, are repeated in the several sub-divisions of 
the general government, as state, province, principality, 
canton, county, township, and even to the smaller sub- 
divisions. 

In some forms of government, all the above-named func- 
tions are vested in one man, as in the case of the unlimited 
monarchy; but more frequently these powers are limited 
in various ways, sometimes to a select few, chosen to 
administer the same general powers, as in the oligarchy 
and the aristocracy; and in the republic, where it is sought 
to equalize and balance the powers in the several depart- 
ments in such a way that any one or more shall act as 



198 ELEMENTS, OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

mutual checks upon any or all others, and that the respon- 
sibilities and duties of the government may also be dis- 
tributed among the people and the governing agents, where 
we usually find the most popular government. No one 
department, therefore, may usurp the prerogatives, respon- 
sibilities and duties of another. 

In this last form of government, the people are respon- 
sible for the choice of the agents or representatives; and 
the agent or representative, on the other hand, is respon- 
sible to the people: i. e., he is responsible for the proper 
discharge of the duties assigned him by the laws, which 
are, in turn, the expressed will of the people, through 
similar agencies. 

All agents or representatives are expected to carry out 
the expressed will of the principal or the people — for the 
people stand in lieu of the principal here — when such will 
or wish is expressed in a legalized form; provided, also, 
that these wishes do not, according to the best judgment 
of the agent, who is also one of the people to be consulted, 
interfere with or antagonize the public good. When this 
can not be done, the agent or representative should resign. 
Hence the supreme importance of choosing wise and honest 
legislators and rulers, since both are servants of the people, 
and not their masters. 

But when the people are ignorant or indifferent, or when 
enslaved or impoverished by oppression or any other cause, 
it is scarcely possible for them to do this, especially when 
they become the mere tools of designing and unscrupulous 
party leaders: or where their deliberate choice is in any 
way interfered with . Hence the objects and aims of good 
popular government can be carried out only when the 
people are intelligent and virtuous. And the people can 
be intelligent and virtuous only when suitable provisions 
are made for instructing them in all matters pertaining to 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 199 

good government. And again, this desirable state of the 
people can be realized only when the several departments 
of the government are filled by persons equally well 
informed, or better— if any difference — truly patriotic, 
wise and virtuous. But the dangers and difficulties of our 
form of government have been considered in another place. 
The usual mechanism has been presented here. 

4. And as for the principles of International Law con- 
stituting any part of morality, or entering into a system 
of moral culture, we have only to say that the same rules 
of conduct should govern nations that govern states, com- 
munities and individuals; for what is right or wrong 
inherently in the individual, is right or wrong in the gov- 
ernment, and nation composed of individuals, with this 
special difference, which is one of application, and not of 
principle; viz., that any wrong or violation of right by a 
government against a government, does not taint individ- 
ual morality. It only affects the government, or the 
machinery: and it is difficult to say just in whom, or where 
the particular blame rests. If, indeed, upon any one or 
more individuals of the offending government, it must be 
upon that one or those who originated, or caused the 
wrong to exist: and yet the nation, not only in its individ- 
ual capacity, but as individuals must suffer, because of 
connection or sympathy, just as in the case of a wound 
upon the human body, all the associated tissues sympathize 
and suffer with the part wounded. And so if an individ- 
ual of one nation or government wrong one of another, 
the whole nation or government feels it and resents it, as 
a nation or government. And if the wrong is committed 
by the government against an individual of another gov- 
ernment, not only the individual of the nation feels it, 
but the whole nation or government. Hence, every nation 
feels called upon by the laws of honor and of justice to 



200 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

protect every individual or member of its own government, 
let the violation of right occur wheresoever it may. 

The following condensed view of this subject may be 
serviceable to those who wish to study this matter still 
further. 

I. The offense of one government against another of 
equal, superior or inferior standing. 

II. The offense of an individual against another govern- 
ment. 

III. The offense of the government against the individ- 
ual of another government. 

IV. The offense of one individual of a government 
against an individual of another government. 

Of course, the individual in the above cases may repre- 
sent any number of individuals not including the nation- 
ality. And the fact that the nationalities and allegiances 
may or may not be on equal standing, does not in the 
east affect the laws of obligation or justice. Let these be 
discussed in class. 

These cases of national difficulties arising between gov- 
ernments are all provided for in what is known as "inter- 
national law," or those common agreements that have 
been entered into by all enlightened nations, one with 
another. They are expressed usually in what are known 
as treaties; and these, again, are known under different 
names, according to the subjects treated, the principal of 
which are those of 

1. Reciprocity, conferring equal privileges mutually 
upon the parties concerned, as regards duties, imports, 
customs, etc., concerning foreign commerce, regulating 
these by agreement. 

2. Extradition, or the yielding up of criminal offenders 
by one government to the just demands of another. 

3. Citizenship, or the general agreements that may be 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 201 

entered into between different nations, as to political 
rights, duties, and treatment of foreigners, when coming 
and going into another country with intention of citizen- 
ship or trade. 

4. Special treaties may also exist, relating to territories, 
boundaries, commerce, labor, finance, shipping, war, land 
and naval forces, etc., etc.; but all have about the same 
general object and bearing, viz., not only an adjustment 
of misunderstandings and other difficulties, but the peace- 
able enjoyment of those natural rights and privileges that, 
belong to all nations and governments in common. 

Those relating to ' f War" are of special importance, 
since they bear upon one of the great questions now agi- 
tating the minds of philanthropists and reformers of the 
present day, viz., the proposition to submit, for peaceable 
adjustment, all national and inter-national disputes and 
disagreements, to a national or international council of 
arbitration. 

Without so much as offering an argument, either for or 
against this measure, we submit it to the candid consider- 
ation of all who are laboring for a more humane, rational 
and economical method of settling national and inter- 
national disputes. 

SUGGESTIONS IN CONCLUSION". 

These questions may be submitted to the more advanced 
pupils and classes, and free discussion, both formal and 
informal, encouraged among them, and even among all 
the pupils where circumstances are favorable ; thus train- 
ing them to grapple with these questions before they are 
called upon to discharge the duties of citizens. 

Moral training, therefore, to be effective must take hold 
of character and duty; must touch all points affecting 
man's life and labor. His education from the very first 



202 ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 

must be shaped so as to embrace the largest range of 
human obligation and duty, for what can we reasonably 
expect of him if he is left in ignorance of these life-issues ? 
From the earliest impressions and their feeble expression, 
to his profoundest thought and reasoning, both in private 
and in public, the whole tenor of his life must conform to 
the law of God, which is the highest expression of human 
liberty — the law as revealed by the Creator, and testified to 
in nature and science. 

As child, citizen, law-maker and ruler, as individual or 
government, as laborer and capitalist, principal or factor, 
owner or agent, as producer or consumer; in all these, 
and in whatever station or grade, his highest ambition 
and greatest glory is To be a Man, rounded out in all 
his faculties, in all his relations a full-orbed man. There 
is no higher station, no higher honor in this life, and per- 
haps none in the next, more exalted or dignified. It 
expresses all that is just, benevolent, wise, truthful, good ; 
all that is loving, pure, honest, brave, noble, God-like. 
To be more were unnecessary and impossible. 

To recapitulate the last few thoughts 

1. The liome and family are the legitimate sources, both of 
life and its duties, its sympathies and sorrows, its privileges 
and its restraints, its Law of Liberty and its Liberty of Law. 

2. The school, in all its departments and grades, must 
take up and carry forward these duties and sympathies, 
this liberty in law, while in actual scholastic work, adding 
the accomplishments of learning and discipline, necessary 
for encountering and conquering. 

3. Tlie environment with all its inequalities as the 
associated relations of neighborhood and incipient society, 
and those intermediate steps outside the school, into 

4. The business world of thought, and purpose, and 
act — the social, commercial, and political world life—the 



POLITICAL OBLIGATIONS AND DUTIES. 203 

national and international relations, and all those indus- 
tries and enterprises that so distinguish man from all 
other terrestrial beings. 

The three stages preceding this last, viz., Business, 
are all more or less preparatory, ending in this higher, if 
not highest expression of manhood and womanhood (for 
they are generically identical and their rights and destiny, 
lie in the same plain) of responsibility and duty. And to 
determine which of these antecedent stages is most impor- 
tant, or whether or not the last is not equally so — as child- 
hood, youth, early manhood, or maturity, where the strug- 
gle with the world life really begins, would be difficult. 
Enough that we know the responsibilities and duties of 
each. But to determine the one most fraught with deter- 
mining causes, were not so difficult. The first and second 
in this regard, have no parallels in this life. 

And to determine which department of this preparation 
period is most favorable for moral culture, it is only 
necessary to refer the reader to the impressible nature of 
childhood and youth, the seed time of human life, the 
certain precursor of the future career, and to the imperish. 
able nature of these early impressions. 

"The Child is Father to the Man." The home is the 
birthplace of morality: the school, the foster mother to 
the home: the neighborhood, the stepping stone from the 
threshhold of home and school, into the wider world — 
the battle-field for life and victory. 

Note. — The following synopsis of the last three chapters may be 
useful in review, and for independent study. It is hoped also that 
frequent abstracts -will be made by the learner, from time to time, 
and that many additions may be made to the topics named through- 
out the entire volume. Independent thought and study are the life 
and safeguard of learning; and the man who reads a good book and 
leaves it before he is able to reproduce it, in some form and always 
improved, and made practical, has read to a poor purpose. There- 



204 



ELEMENTS OF ETHICAL SCIENCE. 



fore, for the sake of convenience in study and application, the topics 
of the last two chapters are here briefly arranged in a somewhat logi- 
cal order. Let them be carefully studied, from an independent 
standpoint. 

SYNOPSIS. 



■3 

CO 



Home and Family 



Kindergarten and 
School. 



r Marital J Man and Woman. 

Mantal 1 Husband and Wife. 

Parental. \ Maternal. 

] Paternal. 

Filial iFraternal. 

I Sisterly. 



Teacher = A mother in sympathy. 
Pupil = Child and associate. 
Parent = Provider and guardian. 



° 



Neighborh'd and 



Society, 



Social intercourse. 
Friendly confidences, etc. 
Industries and business. 



s ( Contracts 
.2 Agreements. 

© ! 
s I 

S J Productions and 
o 1 Commodities. 



( Employer and Laborer, 
and X 



Labor and Capital. 
{ Sellers and Buyers. 



Producers and Consumers. 
Merchants and Middlemen. 
Insurance and Games of chance. 



Associated Capital 



^orations j g£j££ etc!* 

Machinery j \ £* 

I Monopoiyeontroung.] ^Xo a dme P s r . i0eS - 



Inherent and Civil 



People— Citizen. 
State and Nation. 



General and 
tional. 



Na- 



( T 
\ E: 
( K 



The origin of power. 
Ends of government. 
Kinds and departments. 



f Agents, Officers— Dutips. 

( Reciprocity. 
< Extradition. 
( Citizenship. 



a^rfnternational \ Laws and Treaties 

I War and Arbitration. 



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